


Given the Gift of Time

by Gairid, Leshan



Category: Lestat - Fandom, Louis - Fandom, Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice, vampire - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-07-08 18:14:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 44,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19873924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gairid/pseuds/Gairid, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leshan/pseuds/Leshan
Summary: Louis decides the time has come to give Brian Callahan, who he has mentored for some time, the precious Blood and turn him into a vampire.  Lestat works through his feelings on this and also deepens a friendship with the mortal Susannah Jamison who was introduced earlier in this series.





	1. Gunpowder

**Author's Note:**

> Brian is a longtime OC in Gairid's work. He has appeared in several storylines. This story directly follows "Across the Sea of Years".

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the 4th of July and Lestat returns home from the Island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We invite you to read the Torn, Frayed & Mended series to familiarize yourself with the original characters. As always, we welcome those quick kudos, but we do encourage you to leave a comment. As with our other works here in the Archive, this one will be lengthy so bookmark, follow, subscribe etc., in order to be notified of new chapters.

**Gunpowder**  
  
**Written by Leshan**

* * *

**(Lestat)**

“Is there anything more I can do for you, Sir?”

I was called out of my distraction by the papers he was pushing toward me in an obvious attempt to finish our transaction. The rental car terminal was painfully bright and I collected the receipts without looking at them. Even that made me think of Louis; He’s got a head for numbers, organizing receipts and such, and it would be like him to actually enjoy giving them a once-over. I’m just the opposite and the rise of online shopping has only made my impulsive spending habits worse. What a good thing I had him to steer me toward much more pleasurable occupations. Mm, that yes - I was so damn hungry for his body against mine - but first, to tend the ever-inescapable thirst. I stepped out into the air and inhaled deeply, letting my nose open wide to the perfumed underworld of New Orleans in deep summer.

Those who call it home understand. July heat simmers the waste from restaurants and human bodies as it overflows the dumpsters and steams up from ancient storm drains. The humidity prevents the mixture of beer and piss from drying so it lingers until someone makes a halfhearted effort to hose the sidewalks. Beneath that, the primal mix of blood and sweat was a constant thrum of temptation. As I walked near the river I paused to listen intently, to scan for what may be easily within reach. I was famished and the docks were usually rife with opportunity. Near the building where we kept the cars, there was most often a small band of homeless men. They saw me approaching and the old-timer with the missing ring finger gave a nod. They were in no danger; there was much more deserving quarry to pursue. It might seem ironic but these guys were likely safer here with us coming around than they were in any other section of the city. I figured I may as well have a look to make sure everything was in order so I punched in the alarm code on the warehouse door.

Nothing was amiss in the place, but the night I’d been here with Louis, Brian and the beast of a man who’d shot Louis played in my mind as clearly as if it had been happening there and then, The look in Brian’s eyes so wild and hungry as he’d quite unintentionally tasted the blood of that particular “evil-doer” was not easily forgotten. The memory pulled my lips into a smile that grew as I thought of a very different evening in this room where I had insisted to Louis that he and I should for “research purposes”, test out the comfortability of every backseat. The conclusion of that testing was performed in a Bentley we’d owned at the time, a boat of a car and an obvious clear winner for such activities. Unfortunately, the supple, cream-colored leather was not engineered to support what the two of us could give in equal measure. The blood had come up easily enough, but the four-inch gash right in the middle of the seat was reason enough to sell it at a ridiculous discount.

It was good to be back and think of these things, and I wondered as I turned off the lights and secured the alarm system, how long it would be before Louis and Brian sensed my arrival. I did not want to call their minds to me so I diverted my thoughts once again to the pleasure of the hunt. I headed North into the Quarter without a firm destination in mind. As I walked I thought of the time Louis and I had spent on the island. It had been a place like no other and I definitely intended to speak to David about it. I paused to see if I could sense him somehow but there wasn’t even a remote by-proxy ping on his thoughts. What I did sense were two petty thieves nestled in an abandoned store near the convention center. No need to rush. Again I thought of the island and the others we’d met there. After Louis’ departure, I found spending time with Hallvard quite interesting. His love of the place was evident in the intricate security systems he’d designed and he’d elaborated on the engineering details until I gave away the fact that my attention was waning. Even then, he was full of interesting conversations about his mortal life. The surprise for me of the whole trip was the young immortal girl we’d met, Marlana. I found myself fascinated by not only the story of how she’d become a part of the immortal family, but also admittedly, by her fascination with me. She actually convinced me to grant her what she called an interview, recorded for accuracy of course. Whether anything will ever come of it, who knows. Maybe she’ll write her own book.

Two sharp pops came from a block away and I waited to hear more. A whistling scream followed and I watched a trail of sparks rocket skyward and explode into a shimmer of red, white and blue. I’d forgotten it was Independence Day. “Well, so much the better”, I said out loud. Damn, but the air was heavy; I was glad to be dressed lightly in jeans and T-shirt so faded it was nearly transparent. Even in this attire, it was almost unfair the way any victim in the outlying areas of the city would ask themselves what a guy like me was doing there. I looked like the one who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The lost tourist act has served me well on many occasions. By the time I reached them, the two men I’d zeroed in on were too occupied with one another to even notice my footsteps. On the wind came the reek of their suffering hygiene and burnt crack pipes and of course, the blood, strange and dirty with despair and criminal spice. It quickened my thirst to the point that as I stood in the doorway watching, I licked my lips in anticipation. Their backs turned, they’d had no reason to expect a stranger to appear, let alone one who looked like me. They were splitting up the money from their latest victims, laughing and speaking in low tones about the opportunities the holiday weekend had given them to pickpocket. Oh but I knew all about the ease of lifting valuables from strangers didn’t I?

One of them sat back on his heels and faltered onto his back as he saw me. “Why, good evening,” My greeting was cheerful as I leaned casually on the door frame. It sounded as if I were an invited guest, arriving per their invitation and I supposed there was actually some truth to that analogy. They’d set up quite a little camp complete with stolen electricity from a few doors down. His partner turned around from his crouch and kicked over an already broken children’s lamp before stumbling to his feet. I stepped forward to put my hand on his arm. “Your gun wouldn’t be a good idea. You either.” I nodded my head toward perp number one who was getting to his feet. “I don’t mean to disrupt your party so rudely, but you have something I want.”

“Something you want? You come out this way on the down low, city man?”

“That’s witty, but I’m definitely not interested in that,” I said sincerely. “Do you know who I am?” I paused and for several long seconds as they looked at me. Of course, they didn’t know who I was, but the question always felt good on my tongue. If I had smoothly delivered the next line, it would have felt equally as pleasurable, but these guys wouldn’t recognize my name either way. Why waste it?

“Nah,I don’t know who you are man, but we ain’t got nothing. Just a little bit of home here you know? Ain’t nothing worth stealing.” The lamp-kicker advised. As I pressed closer to them, they caught it - the unmistakable knowledge that I was more than just a random stranger. They didn’t formulate the concept of vampire; the idea isn’t at the ready in modern minds, but they knew all the same that I was something come to life from the darkest corners of their imaginations. I have to confess it gives me a thrill each time I see the realization in the eyes of my intended and seconds later, the scent of the adrenaline-spiked sweat it provokes. “Hey, just, just take what you want and we won’t say nothing to nobody.” His tongue was thick with fear and he sounded comically like Stallone in one of the Rocky movies.

“Wait, what do you mean? You just going to let this asshole walk in here and take our stuff?” This other guy, perp number two didn’t resemble anyone other than what I intended to make him.

Well wasn’t that charming. “I’ll skip the introduction then, gentlemen. I think there’s a better way to show you who I am.” Deftly I was upon Rocky-perp before he could recover and think to draw his weapon, I jerked his arm until his body was securely in my arms. My eyes never left the guy on the floor as I twisted his partner enough to sink my teeth deep into his neck. They both screamed but there was no true degree of resistance. Sometimes honestly, I preferred their struggle but tonight I was famished and relished the weight of his body against mine as I drank heavily. His blood tasted like the smell of ammonia and charcoal, a dank stone cellar that stored his life. Greedily I spread the gash on his throat and licked it sensuously while the beat of his heart ceased. The intoxication taking hold, I let him drop carelessly and looked next to the second man on the floor, now cowering in the corner.

“Don’t kill me, please!” He cried. “Just, just take whatever you want. All the money is over there on that table. Take it.”

“Oh, I will. But you see, I’m not nearly satisfied.”

“Whoever you are, whatever you are… fuck, oh God, please … I won’t tell anyone, I promise. Please…”

Did I mean to laugh at him? It came without a thought as the warmth and wonder of the first victim’s blood electrified my body. “It doesn’t have to be...” I gestured to his partner who was sprawled awkwardly atop an overturned plastic basket like an abstract post-modern sculpture. “I can make you feel better than he ever could.” Again came a laugh, low and teasing. I really couldn’t help being bad, especially when it served my needs so well. He looked at me nervously and I discerned that despite what he’d witnessed, he didn’t understand my meaning. Alright then, I’ll play along. Maybe I do mean it that way, pal. I slowly took my shirt off and tucked it into my waistband. His eyes, wide with disbelief, searched my face and then took me in from top to bottom. He found his feet and yet could not move. He trembled as he leaned against the wall.

“This can’t be happening. Joe just got some bad stuff, that’s all. You’re not really here. You can’t be real.”

“I assure you I am very real.” I reached out a hand but he didn’t accept the invitation. “Now don’t deprive yourself. Stay with me. Your friend missed the best part.” I quieted him. My voice came more slowly, heavy with the blood that moved through me. “Yes, there, that’s better.” He stuttered an unintelligible reply and in the next instant, he was in my arms. I buried my face under the hair at the nape of his neck where the fading scent of soap begged to be tasted. His heartbeat spiked as I traced my tongue upward to his ear. “Ssh, now…” We sank back into a plastic lawn chair and I looked down into his glistening eyes. He caressed my chest, trying to formulate any shred of logic for what he felt.

“But you, you’re going to kill me. Look…” His eyes grew wide again as he pointed to the corpse in the corner. “What you did to him! ”

“You asked what I needed from you two and I think you know the answer now, don’t you? Joe there gave me plenty and I’m feeling good. Feeling good is what it’s all about right?”

“I don’t… I don’t know I mean… what you did to him.” He drew in his breath, considering what he’d witnessed. “You’re going to let me go then?”

Keeping a good poker face isn’t my best trick, but I didn’t give in to laughing at the question. My answer was to lean in and lapped the rivulets of sweat from his throat where I whispered, “That depends. I love to be persuaded.”

“I.. I uh, what, I don’t know…” He stammered.

Well, no fault there. How does one persuade a vampire not to drain them dry? There are no magic words, but it’s always worth a try. He stared at me wide-eyed and tears rolled down his cheeks. I felt no revulsion, but I understood why it’s best to dispatch them quickly. To feel the rise and fall of their minds as finality closes in is both beautiful and horrific; There may be little else that reminds me so abruptly of the end of my own mortal life, so with that again the best adjectives may be beautiful and horrific. Louis doesn’t toy with his victims, doesn’t elicit their memories as an appetizer. He does what is necessary - that which took him so very long to accept as his true immortal nature. Didn’t we live through that struggle together all those years ago? Now, he is unfailingly precise; My beauty and his lethal kindnesses.

“I just want to uh…” He shifted in my arms with the thought to get free. “If, if… if you let me go, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?” I brought him tightly down on my lap, one hand gripping the back of his neck. His throat stretched and pulsed irresistibly. “Will you go to church every Sunday?” I’d heard it pass through his thoughts. “Light candles at the cathedral for Joe and sin no more? Maybe you’d even light one for me?” I kissed his cheek and hovered so close to his lips as I spoke. “Laudable, but futile.” The short laugh that rose from my chest was low and menacing. Despite the quantity I took from good old Joe, the thirst was piquing and demanded resolution. He would find no freedom, there was no swaying my mind. So I lied. The pounding of his heart was my amnesty. I closed his eyes with my fingertips and pressed my lips to his ear, “Silence now, my sweet and saving victim.”

I sank my teeth deeply into his neck and moaned with relief as the silken blood filled my mouth. Restraint, I told myself, slow down, savor him. If he’d ingested any drugs, they’d dissipated and all that was left was dreams of the youthful days spent working on cars with his friends and whistling at pretty girls until he and Joe found one another more attractive in the days before drugs and crime had tarnished them. Damn it, no. I deflected the thought, cast it from the enveloping sanctuary of the moment. I wanted no visions of his mortality, I wanted only to slake the thirst. This was the dangerous place where it would be so easy to forget the rules and drink even past the point where the drumbeat ceased. There was the instinctive desire to nurse at the wound and lose myself in the floating comfort such primal addiction brought. But of course I could not, none of us could and selfishly, we who had been born into that darkness with all its privilege sang a familiar lament. “It must end all too soon,” I said aloud as he slid from my arms and rolled down the slant of my legs.

I studied the stillness of his face as the last breaths came and went. As I’d promised, it hadn’t been painful or even violent. I leaned down and caressed his cheek and when he was no more, I laid him on their mattress and covered him over with a sleeping bag. I turned toward the door and swayed unsteadily. I was incoherently gripped in the swoon of mortal blood but had thought enough to have pocketed the thick wad of bills they’d been counting when I entered the game. Why didn’t these guys have better accommodations for this kind of haul? Well, to each their own right? One man’s hovel is another man’s Hilton right? This time I couldn’t help it, I started to laugh, and laugh and laugh. I spilled out of the building, drunk and shirtless, passing by the homeless enclave and throwing money in the air. Oh yes, New Orleans, I'm back.

Darkness enveloped the city and fireworks were going off all around. If Louis and Brian were out for the festivities, they’d be at the riverfront, either at Woldenberg or a bit farther down on the Creole Queen at Spanish Plaza. Okay, time to cheat just a little: I stopped in the middle of the street and closed my eyes to hone in on Brian’s mind to get a read of his surroundings. So the steamship it was; Brian, Louis, Perry and a man I’d seen her with before. His name was Gavin? Marvin maybe. With a G, Garvin. A lawyer from Baton Rouge. I retreated before he could hear-feel me randomly fiddling with names and locations in his brain. Bats in the belfry, I said to myself. As I walked on, the night lit up with all variety of sparkles and noise. I truly enjoyed the holiday and it seemed appropriate somehow to my arrival.

The noise of the celebration had begun to diminish as I stepped onto Canal Street and headed toward the river. Now the locals and tourists would fill up the bars and side streets until like me, they were driven to bed by the morning light. My head was still buzzing as I stopped to look at myself in a shop window.

“I’m supposed to try and sell you a shirt but honey, you looking real good without one.” Said a young, too-tall black man wearing a red, white, and blue wig. His lips were outlined in dark blue, filled in with red and sprinkled with white glitter. For a moment, I was dizzy in love with him as part of the bizarre tapestry of this place.

“I do look pretty damn good, don’t I?” I twirled around for him and he leaned forward and slapped my ass.

“Mm, Mm, go on now, take that temptation away from me, Devil.”

I resumed my walk until I saw that many of the ship's passengers were gathered by a catering spread that had been set up around the fountain. This time without any call to his mind, Brian spotted me. As I watched, he was approached by the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen in this lifetime or any other. With a nudge to the man’s arm and a nod in my direction, Brian steered his attention toward me.

Yes, my love, I’m home.

Series this work belongs to:


	2. Reignition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lestat and Louis reunite when Lestat returns from the island

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We invite you to read the Torn, Frayed & Mended series to familiarize yourself with the original characters. As always, we welcome those quick kudos, but we do encourage you to leave a comment. As with our other works here in the Archive, this one will be lengthy so bookmark, follow, subscribe etc., in order to be notified of new chapters.

**(Lestat)**

**Written by Leshan**

After his initial stare, he turned back to Brian as if to say, “Do you see who’s here?”, and Brian said everything without a word, “Yes I see! What are you waiting for?” and so he waited no longer. He approached and ah, if I could convey what it’s like to watch him walking toward you I would rhapsodize about it endlessly. It’s every slow-motion movie love scene you’ve ever seen, only it’s Louis. Does that say enough? He bit his lip and gave a little shake of his head as if he’d suddenly become aware of similarly fascinated thoughts of me. It was one of his many expressions I’ve come to know and love.

The walk over had cleared my head just enough, that I realized I was standing there shirtless. In the dark back streets that was fine, but not so much in this circumstance so I slipped the T-shirt over my head just as he reached me. 

“Oh now, why’d you have to do that?” He asked as he pressed against me. 

His voice was low and warm, so easy and right. “All the better for you to take it off again.” I answered. We wrapped our arms around one another and shared a long overdue kiss. He gave the softest moan of pleasure for the lingering blood in my mouth. How soon could we be feasting on one another, I wondered. Our eyes met and within, a desire the ages could not diminish. “I’ve missed you my love. Come say hello to everyone.” He began to walk back toward them my hand in his, but I didn’t move. He looked back in question.

“Only if you promise to lead me home afterward and show me how much you’ve missed me.” 

“That and more.” The response came with a flash in his eyes that said he’d turned the idea over more than a few times. 

We walked over and Brian stepped forward and gave me a long, back-slapping embrace. He smelled so familiar, our Brian with the spiced soaps he used, a bit of whiskey on his breath, the faintest bit of cologne and in his hair, a trace of cigar smoke. When he finally released me he said, “Damn, Lestat let me look at you.” 

I turned around slowly for his appraisal but before he could give it, Perry came over to welcome me home. Her man was nowhere to be seen, but she’d probably sent him off to replenish their drinks. She embraced me half as long, and I inhaled her floral perfume, the residual metallic scent the straightening iron left in her hair and on her breath, a delicate chardonnay. My eyes closed, I kissed her cheek. Regardless of how long I’d known any mortal their blood still stirred my senses. There were no exemptions and it rarely mattered how much I’d already ingested. “You’re home!” She said with a little more exuberance than usual. “I can’t wait to hear about the island. We’ve only heard the barest details. He says you’re the better storyteller.” She pointed her elbow in Louis’s direction. 

“Am I now?” I asked curiously. “My recantations are simply more gilded.” 

She laughed, “From you dear Frenchman, gilding is expected and adored. Now I have to go find Gavin before he gets lost. Brilliant in the courtroom but no sense of direction. We’ll all have to sit down this week and catch up after you two are done shredding sheets.” 

Those S-sounds were drawn out and I hoped she was done with wine for the night or she was going to have a nasty headache in the morning. Still, the idea of Louis and I shredding sheets was most appealing. I looked at him and raised one brow to convey my appreciation of the idea.

“I’m going to make sure she gets where she’s going. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Perry overindulge.” Brian started off but stopped short and turned to me. “Lestat, I’ve missed you more than I can say.”

I gave him a nod as he started off again; Louis stepped away from me to wrap one arm around Brian and whisper in his ear. They’d had three months to reunite while I stayed behind on the island. As I watched their intimacy beneath the cascading fireworks it felt like I’d been away much longer. 

**⟡⟡⟡**

When again he was by my side we moved away from the crowd and slipped into a blind alley beside one of our favorite antique stores. He roughly held me against the bricks and I pulled him in just as eagerly. 

“Oh, my love, you’re delightfully drunk.” His voice was sensual and amused, his full lips so close.

“A little. It was a long journey. I was thirsty.” I teased as I traced his lips with my finger. “And I presumed you’d care to sample. What do you say? Just a sip?” My finger fell away and with both hands on his waist, I pulled him closer. “A little taste of this drunkenness?” The last word was cut off as he claimed my mouth, kissing me as if we’d been apart a century rather than a few months, but I certainly wasn’t going to protest. He ground his hips against mine and I was distracted only a second so cleverly as his teeth lanced my tongue. He moaned and rested his arms on either side of my head, his hands pulling at my hair as he drank. A willing captive was I as the nuances of my victims filled his senses and past that so deep and mysterious, the taste of the very blood that had made him. I felt the pressure of his teeth against my tongue once more but with a gentle twist of my head, pulled away. 

“Home, beloved, and you can have all you want of me.” My voice was ragged with desire and when he brought his eyes to meet mine, his lips damp-stained and inviting, I found it nearly impossible to keep from ripping his clothes off for a first round there between the buildings. It wasn’t as if we’d never done it before, but I wanted him fully flexible, fully stretched out beneath me on our bed.

“All of you,” Was all he said as he stepped away and exited the space. He turned and extended his hand, but I shook my head. No hand holding just now. “Walk on ahead of me.” I instructed with my eyes trained on him. He knew the reason and compiled, distancing himself just enough for me to fully appreciate every facet of his movement. I was grateful for the warmth of the summer night; the thin shirt he wore held to him in all the right places. No eyes but mine might have perceived the pull and release of his muscles as he walked. It was like watching footage of a panther in slow motion, the perfectly tight sinew taut for the hunt. My gaze fell lower to his waist, his hips and lower still to one of his best attributes, particularly when he walked it, wrapped in well-fitted black jeans.

I followed in silence, hypnotized by desire. When we reached and entered the front door of the townhouse he paused for a moment to feel me there; a few seconds to put some slack in the line before he started on the stairs to the second level. In once pace, I reached him and grabbed his waistband. I let out a low growl that morphed into the word no as I first pulled him backward against me, then forcefully pushed him down onto the plush stair runner. I leaned over him, into him and he pushed back only enough to meld our bodies into a perfect liquid sculpture. Beneath the fall of his hair I kissed his neck and tauntingly grazed my teeth upward to his ear while with one hand I destroyed the shirt and flung it away. Bare flesh my love, all the better for these, I whispered and then moved my teeth down his spine none too gently. Let the bloodletting commence. Each laceration was alternately teased open and healed by deep strokes of my tongue as he writhed beneath me and uttered my name in broken syllables. He pushed me upward, wanting me to free him of any remaining encumbrances and the shift of his body as I lovingly marked him caused a craggy gash along his ribcage. He drew in a sharp breath and I watched with undiminished fascination as blood began to pool on the step. I laid my hand in it fully then pressed it down upon his back. At that very moment, his cell phone fell out of his back pocket. Should I stop to take a picture of it? Oh yes. That dark hair, pale skin and bloody palm print was too good to pass up. It would go in our ever growing collection of such abstract and erotic shots. But to the better task at hand before my lover could even protest the pause. I sat his phone down on the clean side of the step and reached around to unfasten his jeans, watching over his back as the wound knitted itself together. “Oh Louis, yes… let’s lose these.” He moved and I pulled until at last along with shoes and socks, all impediments to my access were in a heap on the tiles by the front door. As for my clothing, off came the shirt falling into the congealing crimson, but no more, this is how I wanted him, rough and eager. I got out of my own jeans as much as necessary, freeing the hardness that had yearned for his reception since I set foot in the city. I spread him with both hands and pressed into him which elicited a deep inhalation with my name swirled on the air. My hands grabbed his hips while his dug into the carpeting. Swiftly I rode him, bringing his hips back to meet each thrust and he, ah well his sweetly cursed words were all the enticement I needed for a quick finish in this round one. When it came I held him tightly, my nails digging in just above his pelvic bone. We cried out with one voice and I sank down against his back. 

“Lestat… you...” Breathlessly he rolled from beneath me and reached up to wrap his arms around my head and draw me down for a kiss. It might’ve turned into round two there on the stairs if he had not abruptly slapped me on the ass as he growled in my ear, “My turn.”

I raised my brows and asked, “I don’t even get to rest a minute?”

“You can rest when I’m done with you,” He started. “It’s not like... “ 

But I didn’t wait for the rest of that sentence. In one leap I was up the rest of the stairs onto the landing and down the hall toward our bedroom. Only seconds behind in the game, he caught me by a handful of hair and spun me hard against the hallway wall, causing a sconce to wobble and fall to the floor where it scattered in large shards. Louis’ kicked them away and gave me a most dangerous look before he sank to his knees. As he took me in hand, his teeth sank into the flesh of my inner thigh and I cried out in pained delight. As I’d done, he took extended pleasure in working his tongue deep into the incision, savoring the control he held possibly more than the drink itself. Slowly then he stood and trailed his nails against my chest.

“I’ve thought every night about making love with you,” His lips so close, redolent with my blood. 

I put one hand firmly on the back of his neck and roughly pulled him closer. “There’s only one thing left to do then, isn’t there?” I bit his lower lip and he answered with a punishing press of his mouth as he pushed me along the wall into our room and backward onto the bed. I wanted him inside me to the hilt, but he was evidently not done with what he’d started in the hall. With my feet on his shoulders as he knelt beside the bed, his mouth and fingers drove me to sweet torment. His elegant hands were so damn talented: Sometimes when he played the piano I would think of moments like this when the music they produced was the alternating volume of my voice as I cursed and pleaded for more. But of course his timing was perfect and he brought himself up and over my body like the predator he was, and I secured my legs around his waist. No words, but that look in his eyes - how could it say so many things at once? How could it be reassuring and dangerously lustful?

**(Louis)**

**Written by Gairid**

His legs locked around my waist and our eyes met. The look was love--the look was want and surrender and wonder and to see such a naked display of his emotions wrenched my heart. I had missed him so. 

“I have you now, my beauty, my shining angel, ready for me. I see you trembling for me.” The muscles in his thighs shivered fascinatingly. I reached between us and stroked the puckered little opening to his body savoring the violent upward jerk of his hips and the pleading, note in his voice when he said my name.I positioned myself between his legs and pushed into him, Slow. I took him so slowly, savoring the heated silky tightness of his inner muscles clasping me. His fingers found the healing wound on my ribs and he rolled the edges of the torn flesh to create a sluggish flow of blood. He dragged his slicked fingers across his lips, painting his skin with a bloom of crimson. 

Slower still I penetrated him and withdrew over and over again, covering his mouth with mine and coaxing blood from his tongue until he was panting deeply. “I shall die soon if you hold me to this pace,” he gasped, running his finger nails down my back.

“You have a gift for exaggeration, my darling,” I said, giving a hard thrust and smiling at his hiss of pained lust. I put my hands at his waist. “Just in case, you shall be afforded some respite from my intolerably slow pace.” I rolled onto my back, lifting him as I did so and he found himself kneeling over me. “You know what to do, my beauty,” I said in a soft voice.He lowered himself down on me and the sound of his gasping cry took the breath from me. We began moving together, Lestat on my lap, between my knees as he rode me. He had has arms around my neck and I clasped him about his ribs and we rocked together, exchanging blood, wracked with shattering pleasure. Close to dawn we lay twined around one another. Lestat moved in my arms and took my face in his two hands. “How I love you my Louis,” he said softly. “And I you, _mon ange.”_ I said into his hair. 


	3. Breathe In The Curling Steam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Susannah Jamison was referenced in our earlier collaborative work. She and Lestat, known to her by an often-used alias, strike up a great friendship that proves beneficial to them both in a time of change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We appreciate it when you take a minute to comment on our writing. Sure, we do it because we love it, but it's nice to hear insights from readers as well. It looks like this work is shaping up to be longer than either Gairid or I imagined - no, not some 60 chapters like To Every Season, ha ha, but long enough. Our intention is to post one chapter per week, so make sure to bookmark the work so you can get notifications when we post, and come back to read at your leisure.

#  Breathe in the curling steam 

(Lestat and Susannah)

**Written by Leshan**

* * *

Several nights of rain had passed and the night broke clean and clear. Once I’d dressed and spent some time with Louis, I headed out. I rose quickly to the roof of the Cabildo, which allowed me to survey our my immediate surroundings. I inhaled the scents of humans, the various restaurants and rain-soaked wood. Along with these tangible stimuli, there was as always, the electric undercurrent of voices and emotion. Like changing channels, I tuned in briefly on a man talking to his grandmother, assuring her that he’d employ the utmost care in carrying the gun he’d bought for his own protection. There was a little girl with her parents on Decatur Street, crying because she did not want to return to the hotel but I gleaned that mom and dad were exhausted by marital strife that wouldn’t get better as their night progressed, especially if the dear husband spent any more on Bourbon Street dancing girls. Just as I was about to cease my observations, a swift wave of mortal melancholy piqued my curiosity; it was familiar, this mental space, and I walked to the edge of the roof to peer down into Pirate’s Alley. The street was fairly empty despite the fresh, clear evening so I had a clear line of sight into Tony Seville's bar. Seated there was the lovely Susannah Jamison, who we’d met at a fundraiser last year. To anyone else she may not have looked out of place, but Southern Debutante, daddy’s girl that I understood her to be, she didn’t seem like the sort to go out alone for a casual drink in the Quarter on a Tuesday evening. That was far more my style, right? 

Out of sight against the lower roof peak I recalled the last time I’d spoken to her, when she was wearing an overstated blue dress with matching gloves and antique pearl jewelry. Louis and I were using our favorite aliases, and I, known to her as Julien Degrand, with an e not an a, French-style of course. We'd watched as she worked the room and in doing so landed in the enviable spot of speaking to Louis, or as she knew him, Rene Fontenot. She’d been on her father’s arm most of the evening but for when she gave an award and then prompted attendees for their continued generosity. I’d liked her at once and then as now, her lustrous hair, more copper than auburn, held my attention. Seated there, she could have been any bored, lonely stranger, but her thoughts were turbulent as they came to me and nowhere in them was the idea of picking up a companion for the night. In one moment, I caught bitter hints of desperation and in the next, profound grief. Memories bubbled to the surface and she’d catch her breath in a fleeting respite from the undertow. I saw them as well, she as a plump little girl ambling alongside her beloved father and he then taking both hands and swinging her around in the air before scooping her up into his bear-like embrace. No more would she be able to dance with him at fundraising dinners, listening to him reminisce of when she’d dance on his shoe tips I gleaned, for he’d been killed most suddenly in an accident as he came home from Mississippi. She’d been his darling without sibling competition, and as much as she knew it, he was equally her knight in shining armor. While her beauty and wealth drew a steady supply of interested men, none could ever really compare with her father. 

Eventually, she moved outside and sat in the main square. It wasn’t a matter of deciding whether I should make myself known because I’d already decided to coincidentally run into her. What was required was a bit more preparation since I was keenly aware of her emotions. After so much time however, I was still adept at acting and for a vampire, it’s an essential skill. 

I descended on the opposite side of the building, silent and unseen. In minutes I was walking around the corner to pass the cathedral and find her heading toward the river. I caught up to her and when she paused, I slowed to pass then turned around as if I’d just realized who she was. 

“Ms. Jamison?” I walked backward a few steps then stopped. “Susannah Jamison, well hello.” I walked toward her and waited for her to recognize me. She may have done so more easily if her thoughts were lighter. “Julien. From the benefit? I attended with Rene Fontenot.”

“Oh yes, yes.” She approached me and smiled, her hair blowing in the wind. “I’m sorry I didn’t make the connection.” 

“No fault at all Ma’am. It seems the weather might pick up again. Would you care to get a cup of coffee?”

“I...don’t know, I was just…” she hesitated. 

“Of course, you were on your way, don’t let me hold you up.” I said, then wondered just where on her way might have been. “Seeing you was an unexpected pleasure. Do enjoy the rest of your evening Ms. Jamison.” I turned and started off. 

“Mr. Degrand wait.” When I turned back she looked at least distracted by our meeting, and I gave her an easy smile. “First of all, do call me Susannah. I appreciate your manners, I do, but tonight formality is the last thing I want. I would be pleased to have some conversation and perhaps tea over coffee?”

“Tea it is then, but only if you’ll agree to refer to me without the Mister as well?” I offered my hand and the slightest bow out of habit. 

“Julien, yes.” She slowly took my hand and showed the beautiful, charming smile I remembered without much hint of sadness. If only for a while tonight, staving that off was my mission. 

*********

There was a place on Decatur, not far from where the little girl had been whining to her parents, and as we walked I gently coaxed her arm in at my elbow and guided her the short distance. “I hear they have the best tea in the Quarter.” I offered as we stepped in behind the jangling bells on the door. 

“You hear? Not much of a tea drinker yourself are you?” She brushed her hair back and it reflected the opalescent track lighting.

“I confess, I’m not much into coffee or tea. I prefer stronger refreshments.”

She shook her head as she removed a jacket. Autumn’s chill had set in early and I removed my long tailored coat as well. “Pardon me for a minute while I go freshen up?”

“Might I order for you?” 

“I’d love a peppermint green tea if they have it. If not, English Breakfast will be fine, and thank you Julien.” 

I nodded and offered to take her jacket as well. A small table in the front corner faced a gas fireplace and after claiming it with our garments, I ordered, glad that they did have the green tea she preferred and for myself, a plain hot water. The warmth of the cup was always appreciated, and if I had to I could hold down a couple of sips. 

“Ah, now that’s nice.” She said as she came down the long hallway and spied the fire. “I have a feeling it’s going to be a cold winter. Of course I may not be here for much of it.” She sat down and tilted the paper cup to see the barista’s writing. “They had peppermint, how wonderful.”

“It’s good weather for it. You’re leaving for the winter?”

“I have a friend with a house in Miami, where there’s even less chance of snow than there is here. She invited me but I’m not certain I’m going.” She let out a sigh that conveyed her indecision. “I should accept the offer. It’s generous of her and I’ve never been one who enjoys the cold I suppose. How about you?” 

“Mm, no. I don’t like the cold, but I don’t like extreme heat either. Now Rene, he loves it jungle hot.”

“You and Rene are partners? Is that the correct term? I’m sorry. I recall from the gala that your adoration of him was quite apparent, forgive me if I’m being too forward.”

Say it first, apologize last - a girl after my own heart. “No, not forward at all. We are partners in all the ways that matter.”

She inhaled the steam from the cup and exhaled slowly. “Well, despite my upbringing, I am all for marriage equality. Have you two ever thought of making it official?”

“Some years before that debate was trending, we had a private ceremony. I’m not sure how official it is on the books.”

“As long as it is in your hearts, that’s all that really counts. Goodness knows there’s so much love lost between people in binding marriages that a piece of paper isn’t what makes it real.”

“I like the way you think, Susannah.” We sat in silence for a few minutes and I watched her relax as she stared into the flames. The high, crisp scent of mint mingled with her cologne and I wanted to lean in against her and inhale slowly. For me, one of the hardest aspects of immortality was holding back when all I desired was to experience the fullness of my vampire senses. Yes to mortals, peppermint may smell nice, but to me that and countless other things begged to be tasted, bathed in, luxuriated in, kissed, touched and known in any way I could know them. It was challenging. Louis, while sensual by nature as well, had learned to control that and other impulses far better than I ever would. More truthfully, I didn’t want to develop that restraint. Even as I looked over at Susannah, I knew her heartbreak and saw her drowsy from the pain. Such knowledge even if she’d confessed it to me verbally would have me wanting to taste her tears and hold her in my arms until she slept like the child she never again would be. Sure, I might have said the right words, “I’m sorry for your loss.” but what does that really mean? Would I be sorry? Death of a loved one is difficult to bear, but like the very leaves that fall in this season to the ground, does it not evolve into growth even for immortals? The answer for either side is - if we’re lucky. 

“I’m sorry I’m not much good for conversation.” She offered as she took a long sip of the tea that had cooled to a non-scalding degree. “It’s been a long day. A long week. But this is nice, just sitting here with you.” 

It was nice sitting there with her too, it was normal. So much of my life has been misadventure and high drama, that such quiet interludes are cherished. “Conversation is often overrated.”

“Here, here.” she said with a tired laugh, raising her cup as a toast to the sentiment. “Dreadfully so. I was at a gallery last week where this man followed me around all evening trying his best to engage my interests but oh, all I wanted was a bathtub and a glass of chardonnay you know?”

“Oh how I know, trust me.” I laughed, careful of my tendency of being so easy that those clever little fangs became quite obvious. “It wasn’t Rofourche, was it?”

“God no, but almost as bad. I apologize if he’s ever caused you any such irritation. He’s the design darling of all the major players and quite harmless, but he is a bit over the top.”

“To say the least. If you could have heard the things he was thinking about Rene, you’d blush.” I caught myself too late on that one.

“He’s not subtle to be sure. I’m certain you almost can hear his thoughts.”

“That’s it yes.” I was cut off by the tone for a text and pulled the phone from my coat pocket. “Excuse me.”

I walked toward the opposite side of the room that looked out over the street and leaned against the windowsill. It was Louis, just checking in. He’d gone with Brian to do some shopping. He liked the normalcy of such outings in comparison to my retail expeditions. I replied to him, “Back soon, having tea with a beautiful woman.” It wasn’t untrue and he’d dismiss it as just me being me. There was little reason for him to think anything more - I was more loyal to him now than maybe ever before, and as much as he loved it, I had to think I loved it more. It was something he’d always wanted, but something I’d never quite felt as I did now. We’d settled into a good period, and I wanted it to last at least another century. 

“Just the boss checking in.” I said as I returned to her. She asked what I did for a living, and I assured her that I had the luxury of not punching a timecard and that I had been referring to Rene.

“I wish I had someone that made my eyes light up the way yours do when you speak of him.” 

She swirled her cup, took the last drink and sat it down with a spin that made me think she might have been a fine bartender. What could I say? “I love him very much. I’m sure the right person will happen along soon.” We’d shared approximately these same words at the gala, though she must have forgotten. She sighed and seemed to be searching for the right response. 

I wonder...Is there a word for a man who is a gold digger?”

“I’m not sure.” The question took me by surprise.

“If there is a fitting term, that’s all that’s happened along for me so far. Even the men who have their own money seem to want to add mine to the pot. You’re lucky you have yourself married, legal or not - at least they leave you alone.”

“Oh darling, you’d be amazed by the number of old queens that want me or Rene, or even better, both at the same time.” 

“Old & young queens, I’d guess.”

“Here’s to queens and gold diggers of all ages.” I raised my cup of water as she’d done before, and we both laughed loud enough for the barista to peer at us over the espresso machine. 

Susannah took my hand and I watched her face to see any sign of the reaction that sometimes happened. It wasn’t as if my skin was ice cold or translucent to a fault, but there was often just something, the faintest shiver within them, intuition at work perhaps warning them that the hand they just took was something to beware instead of befriend. When she looked at me, there was no hint of alarm or suspicion, just a certain lonely sincerity. 

“Can I tell you I’m so glad you spotted me tonight. I was sitting in a bar feeling sorry for myself, and that sort of place just isn’t like me nor is it what I needed. You’ve made me laugh and it was sorely, sorely needed. You see,” she lowered her voice and closed her eyes for a second. When she looked at me again they were brimming with tears, but even still, the turmoil had dissipated. “My father, I’m so grateful you got to meet him before… he passed away recently and I’ve been a mess. They told me it was a car, on the other side of the road. He swerved to miss something and just then my father was coming over a rise on the opposite side of the road. I’ve driven it myself, on the highway outside of Hattiesburg,” She paused, picturing the moment. “You really saved me tonight.” 

Some people might consider that ironic, but we’re not always on the hunt, lurking in the shadows waiting to suck your blood. We do a fair bit of compassionate intervention and I’ll say it’s  _ because _ we are what we are and feel mortal pain so succinctly. I brought her hand to my cheek and rubbed against it gently. This was a gesture I did often with Louis, one of comfort and understanding and beyond that, it was intimate. I wanted to assure her that such a private confession was respected and secure. She lowered her face as I did it and caught her breath as she allowed the tears to fall. “I won’t give you all the patent responses. I know you’ve heard them all from friends and family, and I don’t think they lessen the pain at all. What I can say is I know how much he meant to you, and Susannah, When I met you at the gala I can tell you that when you introduced us and he heard you call him daddy, his heart blossomed. I could feel how proud he was of you and how much he loved you.” She looked up and I reached behind me to grab some napkins from the condiment bar and offer them to her. She dabbed at her eyes, careful not to smudge her mascara and let out a long, slow breath. 

“I think those are indeed the best words anyone has offered me and your kindness is so deeply appreciated. I’m sorry about all of this. Here we are laughing one minute, the next I’m in tears.” She gestured to herself with the crumpled napkins in hand. “And I really should let you get back home.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for, and don’t worry about me getting home. My lover is nothing if not patient and understanding of my time.”

“I should be going myself. There’s still so much I need to do, but at least I feel like tonight I’ll be able to sleep and it’s thanks to you and not the tea.”

“It’s been my pleasure and I should hope to do it again soon if you’d like. In the meantime,” I stood up and when she began to rise I held my hand. “Just a moment.” I pulled a small card from the bulletin board and bent over the table to write my alternate cell phone number for her. “Call me if you need anything at all. I have a wealth of diverse connections who can help with whatever details may arise.”

“Thank you Julien.” She stood and I helped her with her jacket, and she slipped the card into her pocket. “I almost feel as if daddy sent you my way tonight.”

“I’d say that’s not outside the realm of possibility.”

She paused at the counter handing several bills to the barista directly instead of putting them in the empty tip jar, then turned to me. “I most certainly would love to count you among my friends and have such a visit again, though I have to insist you bring that handsome man of yours along. Say you will.”

“That, dear lady is a promise that’s easily kept. He’d be delighted.” I put an arm around her and walked her to her car which she’d parked by the brewery, saw her on her way then headed home to Louis. The night was still young and in his arms, there waited my own comfort and escape from the world. 

*********

Louis had listened that night as I detailed her loss and was happy that I’d approached her. When I voiced the opinion that she might find someone to keep her company now that she wasn’t on her father’s arm, he gave me a sidelong glance. 

“Tell me you’re not thinking of playing matchmaker.”

“I hadn’t been, but now that you mention it, we do know quite a few eligible bachelors.”

“We do at that, but I am confident that within her circle she will find one on her own.” 

“Under that polished exterior I’d bet she’d be happier with someone more down to earth.”

“We spend a lot of time in her circle and I’d argue we’re pretty down to earth, considering.”

“Are we? Your interpretation of that phrase is different than mine. I mean for her to find someone that isn’t part of all that at all. I’m not suggesting she start mining the homeless shelters as a dating resource, but someone that has lived on the other side of the tracks might be just what she needs.”

The corner of his mouth turned down in what I’d come to think of as his ‘disapproving dad’ expression. “Why you’d think such a thing escapes me.”

“She said she was taking a break from the trust fund crowd for a while aside from writing necessary checks. You and I enjoy going to benefits and galas,” I waved one hand dismissively. “For her, it’s all the time. Tedious. She never gets a break from having to be perfect to those that hold her to that standard.”

“True enough, but I’m telling you, leave it alone.” 

“I have no intention of hooking her up.” I said as I crawled over to where he sat on the couch and then up onto his lap. 

“Your intentions,” He chuffed. “I know all about the ways in which your intentions can play out.” 

“Tell me all about it, please. No, better yet, show me.” I teased as I twirled his hair. Luckily, he diverted all intentions toward mutual pleasure until morning forced us to bed.


	4. The Oar Upon The Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Delicious interaction, Lestat and Brian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I looked through this before posting, I realized it's much longer than I thought. I should probably have broken it into 2 chapters, but it's late and I'm tired. Please bookmark this chapter, and if you'd be so kind, subscribe to all of our writing so you'll get a note when we post. I know we both love to think of you out there reading, and, we thank you.

**The Oar Upon The Water**

( **Lestat and Brian)**

**Written by Leshan**

* * *

I saw him wave from the doorway as if he thought I may not have already sensed his presence. I could get that way when listening to music, particularly when like tonight, classic blues was delivered sublimely to my ears through headphones that proved their price point. I removed them and sat up to wave Brian into the room. The music pulsed out of the speakers I’d laid on the couch cushion. “Alexa, stop.” I said and then looked up into his face. “I always forget we have that clever device. Did you get that for us? I can’t remember. Come, sit with me.” I propped my arm up invitingly but he opted for the ottoman. 

“I’m not interrupting you I hope.” 

“Not at all.” I studied him, conscious of the fact that if I did it for too long a time it would even after all these years he’d known me, cause him to feel uncomfortable in more ways than one. He looked healthy, and when I say that, I don’t simply mean he looked like he’d pass a routine physical. He was, well, I knew what the difference was, didn’t I? Though I knew he hadn’t sipped from Louis tonight, it hadn’t been long. His aura if that was the right term, crackled with that particular energy. I had damn well given enough mortals a taste of myself to recognize it. “How are you this evening, Brian? You’re looking ah, well, appetizing if I am being succinct.” 

He cleared his throat. “Uh, thanks.” He shook his head. “That’s just one of the reasons I’ve missed you.” 

“You didn’t have anyone to tell you that you look tasty? What a shame.” 

“No, come on.” He bit his lower lip and leaned in toward me. “I mean the way you can throw me off task with the simplest of words or gestures.” 

“Is that a bad thing?”

“It’s a good thing.” He laughed. “Listen, I have been wanting to talk to you about something.” 

“Can you sit here with me or is it something that requires telling from a distance. I’ve missed you too you know.” 

“I’m sorry, yes.” 

He came and sat in the curve of my arm with his head against my shoulder. The clean, fresh smell of him was appealing and true to what I’d told him, aroused my appetite. The fading scent of Louis’ blood within him stirred an ancient instinct. “Much better,” I said nuzzling his hair. “What’s on your mind?”

“When I came back from Ireland, I went to see Wrack and Eleanor. Have you been to see them yet?” 

“Funny you should ask. I almost went to see them a few nights ago but my attention was pulled elsewhere. You know how it is when you’ve got your mind set on one thing but you seem to veer off? I twirled the curls at the nape of his neck in my fingers as I turned more to the side. I loved to watch mortals when they spoke with their unconscious expressions and gestures ranging from awkward to eloquent, and Brian here, so vital against me in the quiet of the room. 

“I know, yes, uh, well, when I had first gotten back, Perry gave me a message that Wrack had told her about an immortal that went there without the typical advance notice. I asked him about it when I stopped in and he didn’t seem overly concerned, but I thought you should know.” 

He turned to look at me and I didn’t say anything for a minute. His eyes searched my face and what did I see in them? Reverence and lust? It was a heady combination. I couldn’t find words for being lost in the connection with him. “An unexpected immortal.” I said at last, turning my eyes away. “Tell me more.”

“Wrack said his name was William, or at least he called himself William.” 

“William,” I turned the name over a few times out loud. “I can’t recall meeting anyone by that name. Was he looking for me or just passing through?” 

“I didn’t wait to ask if he’d been looking for you directly, I’m sorry.”

“No worries. I always think everyone is looking for me.” I teased. Once again my eyes took in his face and I wanted to pull his earlobes with my teeth and listen to him moan. I cleared my throat, “So this William, he was just passing through, I’m sure. If he’d been searching for me or anyone specific, I’m sure Wrack would have given you that information. It’s nothing to worry about. Vampires can be tourists just like anyone else.” 

“Of course. I just felt it was something I shouldn’t withhold from you.”

“I appreciate that, Brian. Is there anything else you’d like to share?” With that I traced a finger along his cheek. The shiver it elicited might have been reward enough. 

“Myself?,” He said in a rough whisper. 

“Is that a question? It’s been too long since you and I have had some one-on-one sharing, wouldn’t you agree?” I turned toward him and he answered by pulling me in for a long, aching kiss. Before Louis and I had departed for the island we’d shared a night with Brian but this, yes, it had been far too long. I moved against him, each of us loosening the other’s clothing with skillful ease until his warmth met the chill of my body. I straddled him against the back of the couch and noted, somewhat amused, that as he spoke to me softly he tilted his head to the side in what was now an instinctive invitation. 

At that moment I did not give into the temptation but eased into a tight press against his lap where the consequence of that torrid kiss became evident.

It’s been long enough that I feel I should put on a bit more effort you know?”

“You don’t need to coax me but I’m not going to say I’d object.” He laughed. 

“Need? No. We’re very far past the need for it but sometimes,” I lifted up and pressed him back into the cushions. “Sometimes it’s nice to play along.” My lips pulled at his earlobe as I spoke. His hands moved against my back and then lower, resting on my hips as I trailed my words down the length of his neck. “To feel the climb and fall?”

“Surrender.” He said breathlessly as he shifted beneath me. “I’ve missed you so, Lestat.” 

Effortlessly I lifted him with me as I stood, then just as easily took him to the floor. I situated myself against him, looking into his thoughtful eyes. “I’ve missed you too, beautiful man.” 

“Show me.” He said with a teasing smile as he played with a strand of my hair. 

“Now who’s being seductive?”

“I can’t let you have all the fun.” 

I straddled him, my eyes not leaving his face. I unfastened his pants and pulled them down with deliberate hesitation. He reached up to do the same, but I backed away and down to lay a trail of kisses from just above the place he might have preferred my mouth, upward to his chest and then yes, it was time to take that invitation I’d declined earlier. As I lay against him, my hands pinning his, I nudged his face and placed my lips against his throat. 

“Ah Lestat, yes.” A slow inhale whistled against his teeth. “Please.” 

He arched against me desperately and my teeth found their mark. Just a sip to start, not the deep pull he would have preferred. I pushed at the wound with my tongue, delighting in the effect it had on him. The blood swirled in my mouth, warm and salty, Brian’s blood… and strangely more. I thought of the night I’d taken him back to Louis at Maison Chene, when Brian had given me a piece of his very intoxicated mind. I could smell Louis’ blood then, and every other time I could sense it there, in truth, there have been times when the blood given to Brian by Louis and myself has served as a conduit for Louis and I to mind share, but this was different. I released his hands and sat up, moving the remaining blood around my mouth as I closed my eyes. As much as on any other occasion there came visions of Louis giving himself to Brian, allowing the little drink but now there was a loudness to the blood itself, a singing of sorts, a statement beyond definition in this moment. 

“Lestat?,” Brian’s voice called me out of the mystery. His hand gently traced the length of my back. He sat up and leaned in against me. “That wasn’t nearly enough.” He moved in front of me and leaned his neck in offering. There was no trace of the small wound I’d inflicted.

I replied as I stood up. “Enough for tonight, Brian; It was enough.” I said as I collected my shirt from the couch. The strangeness was still there, a diminishing drumbeat in my mouth. I paused in the archway and looked back at him, but I couldn’t conjugate anything solid to say. I made my way down the hall to see if Louis had returned from his outing and was relieved to find myself alone in our room. I looked at our bed and thought to lie down and wait out the pounding in my head, but the city afforded ample alternatives for anyone looking to escape their thoughts. I gave my reflection a slow and knowing smile and set off into the night.


	5. Tête-à-tête

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis and Brian visit Belle Époque, a local establishment owned by "Wrack", an immortal and his mortal lady love, Ms. Eleanor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is written by Gairid. Apparently the person posting the chapter is the one A03 says it is "by", which is why we're labeling them after the chapter title in the actual writing. 
> 
> We welcome and encourage all comments and if you'd be so kind, subscribe to all of our writing so you'll get a note when we post. I know we both love to think of you out there reading, and, we thank you.

#  Tête-à-tête

**(** **Brian and Eleanor, Louis & Wrack)**

**Written by Gairid**

I sat across from Wrack at a table at one end of the long room. Several tables away Brian sat in a similar manner with Wrack’s lovely Eleanor. They sat with their heads close together, in intense conversation. 

“I can take a wild guess regarding that conversation.” Wrack said wryly, indicating Eleanor and Brian.

“Would you have wanted to discuss such anything with anyone at that time?” I asked him curiously.

He grinned at me. ‘Maybe, if there’d been anyone I knew who would have believed me. It might even have been sort of a relief to have had something like support, you know?”

I nodded. “Possibly.” I said. “Though things were rather different back when Lestat found me.”

“I guess. I’m pretty sure, though, there aren’t too many people in this particular situation who would have someone they could confide in. You know?”

I did know. If anyone had such confidantes, it would be Brian, I supposed, but like many of us, he had learned early on to keep much of what he knew to himself, even with others of our kind, whom he did not always trust.

He did seem to share a rapport with Eleanor as he did with many women. Many of those he considered close friends were women, another thing that we had in common. I could hear them in the back of my mind, though I was making no effort to eavesdrop. Eleanor seemed anxious at Brian’s decision, though I could not think why. Apparently neither could he, if one went by his soothing rhetoric. 

It appeared that his mention of Lestat’s proposed participation was of some worry to her. He continued to speak soothingly to her, assuring her that he welcomed Lestat’s participation and could not understand her worry over it. To be quite frank, neither did I and Brian’s discomfort over her questioning his motives was transferring itself to me, though not in the form of anxiety so much as something approaching outrage. It was one of those moments where I knew I needed to take steps to throttle my temper; this was something Brian could and should handle on his own. If it had been me, I would not have appreciated any interference on my behalf.

At that very moment, Brian looked over to where I sat with Wrack and locked eyes with me. I gave him a very slight shake of the head to let him know I was not about to interfere and I was relieved to see his shoulders relax, though I still did not understand the backstory, whatever it might be.

Beside me, Wrack was somewhat anxious as well, though not to the degree Eleanor seemed to be. After a few minutes. Brian seemed to have calmed her down to the point where she began to apologize profusely. The whole thing was quite puzzling.

“Excuse me,” I said to Wrack. “I need to speak with Brian.”

Brian walked past us and went out the front door. Moments later I was outside, standing beside him. “Well, that was weird,” he said, frowning massively. “Something’s going on, but I have no idea what it could be.” 

“Why do you say that?”

“Must be,” he said. There’s no reason Ellie should be this worked up about what we have agreed with Lestat. It’s not as though he’s a danger to you or to me.”

“Of course not.” I said somewhat more vehemently than I’d meant to. I slipped my arms around Brian’s waist and up his back and pulled him close, breathing him in.

At that moment, three women issued forth from the door we’d just come from. Three identical women who were, if I was not mistaken (and I knew I wasn’t), vampires. 

Suddenly, the anxiety made a good amount of sense. If these women had caught my eye and Lestat had seen them? There is very little chance that he would have ignored them. 

“Oh, would you look at them.” Brian said, his eyes wide. “I think I am beginning to understand.” He smiled at me. “And don’t worry, I am not jumping to conclusions as perhaps our hosts here feared we might. He leaned against me. “I can already tell…never a dull moment, right? You know Lestat would not have overlooked those three, especially in the state he’s been in the last couple weeks. I should tell Eleanor she doesn’t need to police Lestat just because he is in their vicinity: nor would she be responsible for anything he might set his mind to do.” 

His laughter was infectious. “God knows no one else can.” I said with a chuckle. I took his arm and we began walking toward the River. “You looked to be somewhat uncomfortable when you were speaking with Eleanor.”

He nodded, tucking my hand closer to his body and patting my wrist. “She surprised me.” he said. “I know Wrack would turn her any time she wanted him to, but she seems to be afraid. I don’t know if it’s the process or what, but something about it upsets her. I didn’t feel comfortable pressing her on it.”

I nodded. “This life isn’t for everyone. And without knowing her reasoning, it would be difficult to know what to say.” I said. “In any case, it's not up to you or anyone else to try and talk her into something she is not ready to do.”

“It’s still weird.” Brian said “they’re crazy about each other. You see the way he looks at her?”

“It’s a huge decision.” I said soberly. “Your certainty is gratifying, my dear one.”

**(Brian and Eleanor)**

We went back inside and it appeared as though Wrack had gone to attend to other details. The normal demands of running such an establishment kept him busy, let alone what little I knew of what went on in the back rooms. I returned to the table where Eleanor was finishing up a phone call. She held up one finger and I looked over to where Louis sat at the bar talking to a new bartender. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-two, and her low cut tank top barely concealed her ample breasts, their flesh ripe to be kissed or yes, bitten. Would it be me in a week that drank from her? It was a surreal fascination in my mind.

**** “Thanks, sorry about that.” My thoughts were returned to the present moment. “About that, I guess I don’t know if I want to go through with it, that’s all.” Ellie said, taking a drink from her wine glass. I sipped my whiskey, thinking how it was something I knew I’d miss.

“But why not?” I asked.

I felt bad pressing her…she looked uncomfortable especially when she spotted Wrack near the far back door.

“Well, what about you? Aren’t you scared?”

I shrugged. “A little, I guess. I mean, it’s not like it hasn’t been done before, right? I trust Louis to see that nothing happens to me. That’s one of the biggest parts of this whole deal.”

Great…now I sounded like a pompous, accusatory jerk. Her blue eyes were swimming with tears. I felt a sharp mental prod and I looked over at Louis. “Not the time or place, my love.” He said in stern agreement to my self-reproach. I gave him a mental nod and took her hand.

”I’m sorry. Just ignore me. This is between you and Wrack. You have to deal with it in your own way, baby-doll. The big thing here is love, even if it doesn’t sound like it, and that man of yours loves you for sure. Just one more thing. You wait until you’re ready. It needs to be mutual, hear me? It’s one of those all or nothing deals as I am pretty sure you realize. Wrack is in no hurry, it’s just a natural impatience on his part if it’s even that.”

“She nodded with a lady-like little sniffle.” “You come and see me when  _ you’re _ ready, Brian, will you?”

“Course I will, El. You know that.“ I smiled at her and her face cleared a little. She leaned past me and threw Louis a little wave of her hand as if to let him know all was well. He smiled back at her and it seemed her face cleared further; Louis’s smile has that sort of effect on those who are lucky enough to see it. 


	6. Influx & Flow Part One

#  Influx & Flow

**Written by Leshan**

_ I drank at every vine. The last was like the first. I came upon no wine. So wonderful as thirst. _

_ ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay _

**(Lestat)**

The combination of the lust risen from the incomplete interlude with Brian and how my curiosity was piqued by the information he’d shared regarding the transient immortal had me in quite a state. Brian’s scent clung to my skin as I walked the streets, scanning for someone to soothe what had been left unfulfilled. It wasn’t merely his scent now, nor was it merely his blood that bathed my tongue but it was something other than the protective mark Louis had long ago put upon him to ward off those who might think to do him harm. Mm, yes… different. My head was dizzy with the question as I wove my way into a crowd and pulled a tall brunette against my chest - the gasp, the expression as I pushed that dizziness into her eyes with my own, the surrender, weakened in my arms as I kissed her mouth and lowered to the pulse of her neck. Nothing to cause alarm, just a man and woman sharing a moment of passion. So gently then, I sat her against a metal crowd barrier and moved on to the next, the next and the next. The sanguine sanctuary obliterated all but what the elemental, the blood electrifying my senses as I glided toward the abandoned warehouses, tracking the scent of of impending death. There by the door with one hand clutched to his chest where a bullet had made an abrupt introduction. His breath rattled an invitation for the expedient mercy I’d come to deliver. 

Without words I fell upon him, no mind for my own taunting preludes. There was only yet again the welcoming song of the blood that lured with the promise of no limitations. One victim, fifty in a night, a hundred if there were time for it, there was no overdose threshold. The parameters were the set and rise of the sun and even they could be pushed by those with the age, cleverness and ego to laugh in the face of such boundaries. For now, my head was buzzing and it was enough to walk with the colors of the city swimming like a mirage before my eyes. 

But what was this? I paused on a street devoid of cars or pedestrians and drew in the scents on the wind. Thinking past the ever-present filter that drowned out mortal chatter there came slow, thudding heartbeats; Immortal heartbeats. I took stock of my location and realized Wrack’s place was just around the corner, but there were more than just he and Eleanor and I was too intrigued to resist. 

The small crowd out front stepped back to either side as I approached. One young man raised up his phone with the thought to take a picture but I threw him the faintest glance and his hand began to shake violently. I stepped inside, pausing to note the change to the decor Brian had mentioned. Stylish, seductive and quite reminiscent of an era, how long ago now, when Louis and I had first moved to the townhouse on Royal Street? In terms of vampire years, it was yesterday, but it felt like lifetimes. 

“Well my, my, I’d heard you were back in town and wondered when you’d get around to paying us a visit.” 

A sultry voice approached. Miss Eleanor, clad in a pleated silk gown of the deepest aubergine that accentuated her curves enticingly. She halted as I looked her over, stepped back even. I tried to focus, to right myself properly enough to offer some charming words and an embrace. I caught the lush, heady fragrance of her perfume and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the room softly swayed… or was that me? 

“Lestat,” She cleared her throat and took over the situation I’d presented. “Let’s get you into the back rooms.” I felt her mind reach out for Wrack, felt his mind open up and then his arm around me as Eleanor walked on ahead. 

“Who are they?” I asked, my voice sounding far away. 

“Come on, let’s get you settled.” His voice the opposite, so near and authoritative. “Yes, you. And don’t give me that ‘Do you know who I am’ look. As if you’d let anyone forget.” 

“Stturmame.” Something between the word stop and the phrase ‘let go of me’ came out of my mouth as I pushed the solidness of his body away from me and heard him scrape against the wall as I freed myself from his guidance. Eleanor turned toward me and walked backward down the hallway where sinful pleasures played out behind closed doors. I paused outside the third of five and listened to the sharp crack of leather bring forth a cry of pleasured pain. 

“Who are they?” I asked again, not meaning the anonymous couple inside. My balance was off. I felt myself swaying and braced one hand against the wall. 

“Friends, from California.” Wrack answered. “Just passing through for the night.” 

He lowered his eyes and I gleaned the thought that he should have called me to ask permission for their arrival, but I wasn’t here to chastise. Eleanor intervened and stepped over to extend her hand to me. I took it and moved in toward her cheek to whisper my appreciation of her loveliness and her pulse quickened against my lips. I felt Wrack’s eyes on my back and slowly turned toward him. “Take me to them.” He threw a look over my shoulder and hesitated. I felt his mind searching my own and allowed it. There was nothing to explore but the loud thrum of the blood. I was thirsting even still, but there was another desire there, sensually demanding in nature but I couldn’t have concealed that innate characteristic if I’d tried. 

Farther along the hall and down a narrow back stairwell Eleanor led us into a large room that retained the old decor: The burgundy wallpaper with black velvet applique on the back wall brought an array of memories but they were short-lived when I laid eyes on the three visiting friends, for what friends they were indeed. Raven-haired beauties, that hair long and tousled against their shoulders. Full, perfect mouths in perfect faces, but more perfectly still, they were identical. I looked from them to Wrack and Eleanor who in turn looked at one another with amusement. “Vampire triplets?” I said with a laugh. “Now I really have seen it all. Ladies, I am duly astonished.” They looked to their hosts then back to me. “Yes, that Lestat.” To answer their mental question. “Is there another? If so, I do think we should meet.” 

“Lestat de Lioncourt,” Said one of them as she stepped forward. 

“One and the same.” I kissed her hand and pulled her closer. Hazel eyes like forbidden autumn sunlight searched my face. “And you are?”

“Diana. These are my sisters Minerva and Vesta.” She stepped back between them. 

“The Roman names of the Godesses hm? Not Greek? Who can blame you for that?” I laughed. “And who is the one who made you then, Jupiter himself?” 

“We were mortally born just outside Rome,” The one calling herself Vesta announced. Her real name was certainly something far more mundane, but I very much liked their immortal pseudonyms. “Our maker was known by the name Titius, descended from those in the times of the Gods and Goddesses.” 

“Titius.” I turned the name over in my mind to see if I’d heard it before. “Surely not King Titius. A descendant perhaps.” I led myself around to a wide velvet couch in the middle of the room. Convenient that it was simple in design, no arms or cushions to slide around beneath whatever one could do on such an unobtrusive piece of furniture. I broke from that building thought to look back at the girl. “And where is he now, your Roman maker?” 

She narrowed her eyes some and I narrowed mine right back. “Dead. Killed in the Great Dispatching.” 

I echoed the expression, loudly at first, “The…” Then in a whisper full of thinly disguised amusement. “The Great Dispatching!” No one had ever called it that before, had they? I twirled one hand in front of my chest and then upward into the sky. “Ah that yes, I see.” 

“Lestat,” Wrack spoke up but offered nothing else. He wasn’t telling me to watch myself, he simply didn’t know what more to say. I seemed to have that effect on people.

“No worries, my friend. I’m not goading these lovely women.” I lowered my voice. “And my God how lovely they are. You’ve kept this secret? Jesus Wrack. These girls could be the Kardashian sisters of the vampire world.” I looked back at them, noting that no one as usual seemed as amused with me as myself. “Better than that -- You know what I mean.”

“Not everyone seeks fame, and believe me if we did, those mortal girls would look like roadkill in comparison.” Minerva spoke up and her sisters laughed in spite of themselves. It would seem the tension between us had been broken. 

“Vampire triplets.” I repeated, still quite stunned by the thought of it and their remarkable beauty. Where had they been hiding themselves. If they’d have found me in the nights before the “Great Dispatching” as they called it, I’d have put them in the band. Can you imagine? I once more looked at Wrack and Eleanor who were leaned against a massive wooden slab that had been fashioned into a bar. “I am as you’ve all surmised, most wonderfully fed this evening. Overfed.” I corrected with a shrug. “And do you know that high, when you’re riding it, the crest of the wave California girls, do you know it?” 

“We’re not surfers.” Diana rolled her eyes. “Dude”. 

That image gave me pause. “Well, no less. You know the magic warmth, the delirium of the blood. That much you can’t deny. So then you must know what it’s like to crave that high, to find it and when it’s full and present, to wish it diminished so you can chase and fill it all over again.” 

“That sounds like something that might be unique to your personality Lestat.” Eleanor said with a teasing smile. Wrack considered the sentiment and nodded. 

A dramatic sigh, woe is me. “You’re all against me but I’m not in the mind to argue.” I sat down on the velvet couch and started to take off my shirt. I didn’t have to look up to know they were all watching me with brows raised. “I’m thinking of a verse, I’ve thought of it all night. It’s one of Louis’ favorites. You know of Louis, don’t you?” I asked the trio pointedly.

“There aren’t many who wouldn’t know that name in relation to you. There isn’t one without the other when tales are told.” Vesta spoke and I watched her, noting tiny differences in their faces. “Your beloved.” She added in a beautifully reverent tone. 

“That he is, ever still.” I said quietly. “He read to me one evening a bit of verse that said, “I drank at every vine. The last was like the first. I came upon no wine. So wonderful as thirst.” Quite appropriate in my case lately, for it seems I am insatiable. But before I hunt again… I looked at them and to Eleanor and Wrack for what seemed like several minutes without finishing that thought. I had the urge to get up and leave without explanation. Instead I lay back on the couch, shirtless with my arms extended to either side. I studied the pattern of the plastered ceiling, wondering if I’d ever done so in our old townhouse. “Your maker perished at Akasha’s hand and yet she spared you.” 

“We’ve been told she may not have known of our existence. There were many more young ones that survived than first believed.” 

I could not see which of them had replied and it didn’t matter. “If she wanted them gone, they were as you say, dispatched. She simply didn’t tend to the tedium of eliminating each and every one. She knew of you, I’ve no doubt. She may even have known this very moment would come to pass.” 

“She spared us so we could meet you?”

“Oh my vanity!” I laughed loud enough to vibrate a nearby lamp to the floor. “No, not at all. I just meant she could have known. But I’m thinking now we should help one another.” 

“Lestat, what are you suggesting?” Wrack’s voice now held a slight note of impatient concern.

If I’d meant any of them harm in my inebriation, it would be done and over by now. I sent all of them a mental picture rather than delay my wish any longer with feeble explanations. 

“It’s totally up to you.” Eleanor told them. Her voice was low and honeyed for the transmitted vision had piqued her own desires. 

“From you, Lestat?” Diana the brave came to my side. “You honor us with such an invitation, but I’m not sure we…” 

Without hesitation, I crudely bit my wrist and held it out to watch as the scent reached her. “You know all I am. Be sure.” 

Her sisters approached and knelt on either side of me, any thought of declining overcome by ancient instinct. With Diana nursing my wrist, they each latched their beautiful mouths on my chest and the feasting began. Sweet depletion from my veins, and when again the thirst rose within me they freely offered themselves, lost in the swoon of my potent blood. 

Far away I heard the door close and knew Eleanor and Wrack had gone, but nothing more distracted me from the beautiful flesh pressed against my own as our bodies were bared in the heat of such passionate exchange. 


	7. Influx & Flow Part 2

#  Influx & Flow Part 2

**(Lestat and Eleanor)**

**Written by Leshan**

Muted music and mortal voices woke me, and abruptly I sat halfway up while drawing in my breath. Confused, I blinked and looked around before recognizing that Eleanor was seated at the left side of the bar bent over some paperwork. 

“Welcome back,” She said without looking up, but shortly moved down from the stool to walk toward me. Gone was the purple dress, replaced by a fitted black and white ensemble. 

I sat up fully rubbing my head and then lay back down. Someone had provided a thick comforter and I pulled it up under my chin. 

“Look at you now all cuddled up.” She sat in the chair next to the couch. “Nothing like what anyone expects of The Vampire Lestat. Are you feeling better?”

“Mm hm.” I rolled to my side. “Want to snuggle with me?”

“Now there he is, and no - though it’s tempting as you well know.” 

“What time is it?”

“Midnight. Tuesday.” 

Tuesday?” I closed my eyes. “I’ve been asleep for two nights?”

We thought we’d see you later, but I looked in on you before we retired Monday morning and you were laid out and lost to the world.” 

I picked up the visual of how I’d looked when she performed that courtesy check. “Thanks for the cover. I guess I must have been a little… tired.” She didn’t respond, but I felt her thoughts. “Nothing really to talk about, but I appreciate the concern.” 

“You’re welcome to stay for as long as you like - or need. We can make the room more comfortable.” 

“Not necessary.” I looked down to see if my clothing was on the floor. “My phone?” 

She retrieved my things from the closet and sat them by my feet. “I was going to call Brian and let him know you were here, but I wasn’t sure you wanted anyone to know. As I said, if you need you’re welcome to stay with us or visit as you will for a little… discretionary sport.” 

“The girls.” I rolled on my back and thought of them. “Rather amazing after all, those three. What do you know about the one who made them?” 

“Not much I’m afraid. Wrack and I met one of the sisters years ago while we were on holiday, and traveled back to California with her to meet the other two. We were just as amazed as you by them. In relative terms, they’re very young to the blood and it might surprise you how much Wrack’s kind of taken on the role of their big brother. He simply adores them.”

“Ah, well am I in trouble then with big brother for as you put it, enjoying some sport with the triplets?” 

“Lestat.” She laughed. “As if he would ever tell you what’s off limits.”

“He could.” I didn’t have to see her expression. “I might even listen.” With an exaggerated stretch I sat up. “I do have to get dressed at some point so unless you’d prefer to watch…” 

She walked back to the bar and sat as she’d been before, her back to me. “How did you enjoy your vacation on the island?” 

“Oh, let me tell you - amazing doesn’t begin to describe that place. You should experience it for yourself. I think I actually may be going back soon. I have to find David and once fences are mended with him, there’s a cave he’d love to see.” I paused as I pulled on my shoes. “You know, actually that’s the reason I’d thought to come here to see both of you. I was talking to Brian and he mentioned a conversation he had with Wrack about another immortal who’d come by while Louis and I were away.” 

“Hm, ah yes, the old one who passed through. What was his name?” 

“William, according to Brian.” I stood up and smoothed down my shirt before joining her. “Did there seem to be any cause for concern or do you think he was just a transient?” 

“I didn’t speak to him but Wrack didn’t seem worried at the time. He’d be the one to ask, but you know if there had been any reason for alarm you’d have been the first to know, vacation or no.” 

“I’ll talk to him before I head home. Thank you again Eleanor for looking after me.”

She leaned over and kissed my cheek softly. “Oh darling, I’d never want to be in charge of looking after you, but you’re welcome.” 

**(Lestat and Wrack)**

  
“Well there’s the man himself.” Wrack said as I approached a table in the courtyard. There weren’t many patrons on this early week night and the deepening chill in the air kept most who came indoors. 

He gestured and I took a seat opposite him which put the well-stoked fire pit warmly at my back. “Wrack, thank you.” 

“The girls must have drained you in more ways than one.” His laugh was deep and easy. “Certainly you surprised them but who could refuse such an offer?”

A shrug was my reply. Truthfully I was a bit surprised by what I could remember of my behavior that night, and more so that I couldn’t remember much. “Wrack, I wanted to ask you about the one who called himself William. Eleanor says you didn’t seem bothered by his visit and I agree that you’d have called me if there’d been any concern, but for some reason when Brian told me about him, he seemed to intuit something so I thought I’d ask.” 

“Brian’s perceptions may be heightened for other reasons but I believe his concern for you is the biggest reason for any wariness of strangers. William asked about you, but only as others have done in passing. I didn’t read any malicious intent in his character, though it was hard to know I suppose. He wasn’t exactly open to the customary mental exchange we have established here.” 

He went on to describe him and speak of him and others who had come and gone since we’d last sat down to talk. There were a couple of noteworthy evenings that he shared and I said he should publish a collection of such tales. “And kindly leave out the night I showed up drunk and evidently in need of therapeutic bloodletting.” He let out another deep laugh and I realized that I’d never much gotten to know he and Eleanor and how they weren’t what they seemed to be at first glance, but who was, really? “About that,” I leaned forward in my chair, “I just want you to know that isn’t the reason I came. I wanted to talk to you about the … William, and then I detected the girls. I’m afraid I wasn’t really myself.” 

“As much as I appreciate the apology I also concede that you of all people Lestat have an indefinable and reputably unpredictable nature. Even so, if I’d thought you intended any harm to my girls, I’d have intervened. They participated of their own free will as I suspect most any vampire would for the chance to feel your blood.” 

I wasn’t sure why but that caused some consternation; I felt strangely despondent and out of sorts. “I should get back to the townhouse. You know, you and Eleanor should come by some evening. We don’t often enjoy the company of other immortals and I’m sorry if I haven’t extended the invitation before now.”

“We’ll take you up on that.” He rose along with me and came around to my side. “I haven’t said anything to upset you, have I?” 

“No, no. I just need to head out.” I patted his back as he turned toward the crowd that had gathered inside. I headed for the alleyway exit but paused with a thought, “Wrack?” He stopped but what was running through my mind wasn’t quite coherent enough. “Nevermind. We’ll talk again soon, and thanks again.” 

“Any time.” 

He gave me a wave of one big hand as he headed inside and I started home to apologize yet again and replenish myself in all the ways that mattered. 


	8. Rumpled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all who have taken the time to comment on our work. Please subscribe to get notifications when new chapters are posted. We look forward to hearing your thoughts - it makes what we do so much more rewarding.

#  Rumpled 

**(Louis, Brian and Lestat)**

**Written by Gairid**

“Looks like Lestat’s back,” Brian remarked with some amusement as he got out of the car. Lights shone in most of the upstairs windows. Music played, but the volume was surprisingly low. I listened closely and heard him muttering irritably. 

“What’s wrong?” Brian asked. He stood by the entrance to the courtyard.

“Nothing’s wrong,” I said with a smile. “Just detecting tones of peevishness from on high.” 

Sounds like Motorhead covering Metallica. “Enter Sandman”. I recognized it when he said the title..

Louis raised an eyebrow at me. Lemmie Kilmister does covers?

“Oh, yeah. He does a great cover of Bowie. “Heroes”. It’s loaded in Amazon...ask Alexa.”

I nodded my understanding but doubted I would make the request. Lestat seemed to find more reasons to use the smart speaker, and I’ll admit I was at least entertained by his off-color queries when we’d first gotten the device.

When we got upstairs, we stood watching Lestat. He was kneeling on an area rug that he’d unrolled, his hands on his long thighs. Brian seemed not to notice the rug, in favor of running his eyes lovingly over Lestat’s bare chest, visible beneath his unbuttoned shirt.

Lestat turned a steely eye on me and then turned his head slightly to include Brian in his gaze.Neither of us had moved to turn down the music, God forbid, but the expression on our faces surely indicated a desire to do so. ”Has a family of moles taken up residence while we were out?” he demanded as though this was a perfectly normal thing to say. He was clearly nettled and I knew this was not the moment to make light of his demand. A quick glance at Brian was reassuring, for I could see that he'd also correctly read the situation. Lestat gave one of his theatrical sighs. “The rumples in this rug, Louis. No matter what I try!

‘’No moles,’ Brian said agreeably, “Likely a combination of being rolled up for a while and the humidity. I’ll call someone first thing in the morning about your rumples…” he flinched very slightly at Lestat’s pointed glance, “uhh, about the rumpled rug,” Brian finished. I nodded solemnly.

Lestat sighed but it already looked like he’d regained his equanimity. He rose in one smooth motion from where he’d been kneeling, buttoning his shirt and smiling slightly. “Thank you.” he said with a very slight sharpness in his tone, the sort of thing that was generally noticeable only to me. He swept by me, running his fingertips across my cheek as if to make sure his point was driven home.

“I’ve suddenly become peckish---I believe I’ll attend to that,” he said, again with that same slight and somehow enigmatic smile. Without further elaboration, he left the parlour. As so often happens when Lestat makes an exit, the room seemed suddenly too quiet. 

“Well that was unsettling,” Brian murmured. 

“But not unexpected,” I said, watching him cross the room. He opened to doors to the balcony and stepped outside, looking up and down the street. Lestat, of course was not in sight, and as I watched him, I saw his shoulders slump. 

“Come to me, Brian.” 

He hesitated for a second and then came back into the room. “He’s changed his mind, hasn’t he?”

“Oh, yes. “ I said, drawing him down to sit beside me on the divan. “He’s done so more than once, and it’s likely he will continue to do so. Come, now, Brian. You know what he’s like. You cannot possibly be surprised that he is conflicted.”

“Maybe not surprised. More like I don't understand why he is conflicted in the first place,” he said with strong feeling. I knew what he was driving at, but I didn’t interrupt him. He needed to work through some of the things that were just now occurring to him. He was not only entwining his life with mine, but necessarily with Lestat’s life as well. Although they already had a relationship after the years they have known each other, the changes ahead of us were steps into unknown territory. 

Each according to his nature, yes? These changes had been in the front of my mind for years. Possibly Lestat had been pondering it...he’d said over and over that I should have a companion but I did not want to consider it because I’d thought it was his way of suggesting a separation I wanted even less. The separation occurred anyway and, in quick succession we took what I’d considered a step toward stability, at least for a while. Lestat’s leaving me, abandoning vows and home within months had injured me badly. 

No grieving alone, though, not this time. Brian looked after me and gradually I allowed him to love me the way that he had always wanted to, and I found out that I wanted to love him back. It was gradual, and comfortable because we knew each other well. I began to consider the idea of bringing him into the blood, a fledgling that I had chosen.The idea of a fledgling seemed new, but I had been sharing blood with him for long enough that I knew that Lestat had been right all along: It was turn Brian or let him go. 

“Listen to me, Brian. This is our decision. There is no rush, but any waiting you may have in mind should be for your own reasons. We will have time to speak with Lestat. I’m guilty of not sitting down and speaking candidly with him in the first place and his perception of all of this is colored with it happening, or at least beginning when he and I were apart. Please trust me on this.”

He turned and looked into my eyes. “I trust you. Of course I do. I feel like I’m deciding to hurt him when that’s not it at all.” 

“I know that. He does too, though it may not seem like it.”

Brian cocked his head at me. “Wait. Is this one of those vampire tests?”

He startled a laugh out of me with that. “It might be,  _ mon cher.  _ However, I think it’s more like flying by the seat of one’s pants in this case.”


	9. September

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I forgot to post a chapter this week - Here in the Northern hemisphere, the seasons are shifting. 🍂🍂💨☔🎃😕 The daylight change affects my brain. Also, Gairid and I are plotting the early chapters of the next work. We hope that allows for some forgiveness

#  September

(Lestat and Susannah)

Written by Leshan

The week of Southern Decadence, and the city was full of tourists. Some years Louis and I have gone to elaborate lengths with our costumes for the event and while I’m thankful for every part of Louis’ anatomy, I can vouch for the fact that he makes a remarkably beautiful woman and I’m not so bad myself in drag. We discussed plans for this year, but all ideas seemed to flounder so we decided to simply go out and make an evening of people watching and whatever else came our way. Louis was dressed in a gorgeous purple shirt with green and gold woven throughout and by comparison I seemed uninspired in black jeans and a sheer black shirt with gold trim at the collar and cuffs. 

We’d started off milling around and wound up by the Cathedral, but the streets filled up early and I found myself thirsty for a sample of the revelers. Louis assured me he was content to wait on my return or meet up with me later, so I headed into the thick of things. That there is usually some festival or event going on is only one reason to love this city whether or not you happen to benefit as I do off the drunken attendees. The crowded streets make it ridiculously easy: Big drink, little drink it was so simple to greet, laugh, spin, dance a little, mm why yes I will give you a kiss you sexy stranger, quite a better kiss than you’ve had in a long while although you’ll remember none of it in the morning. This was a place for hearty appetites, mine included. 

When I’d had enough to warrant a break I headed back to the square, but Louis was gone from the bench. I’d rather expected it because I lose track of time in the best of circumstances, let alone when there are so many lovely bodies vying for my attention. I started toward the townhouse trying his cell as I walked but there was no answer. He texted me shortly after and let me know that he was by the French Market. I changed direction, texting and walking as I crossed Dumaine. I suspected that I’d find Louis at Latrobe Park which is where he usually ended up if he even went to the Market at all. He liked the privacy of the park and even on a busy night, it was nice out of the way place to have a conversation. I figured he was…

“Julien?” I heard someone call loudly. I wasn’t accustomed to the name so didn’t turn around immediately. “Julien!” Oh, yes. That’s at least some version of me, isn’t it? There are few people who know that alias, so as I turned my guess was correct. It was Susannah Jamison or some version of herself. She wasn’t in costume, but she may as well have been for the difference since I’d seen her last. She looked, in a word, happy. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and though her attire appeared designer, it was a far cry from the high-end items I’d seen in the past. She wore a thin, sleeveless sweater that clung to her figure, faded jeans and low-cut boots in a beautiful shade of caramel leather. She left her triad of friends and ran over to me. Well fed as I was, I embraced her without hesitation. 

“Look at you,” I exclaimed as she stepped back. “You look great.”

“Ha, yes well compared to the pitiable sight I was when we last talked. I tried to call you a couple of times.”

“I was on holiday in a very remote place. No service.” I marveled again at her transformation. 

“Oh, I’d love to hear about it when you have some time. Are you out headed to a party now?” 

“No, I’m off to meet Rene. Would you like to come and say hello? 

She looked back at her friends who all had their heads bent into the glow of their phones. “Let me go tell them I’ll catch up with them later. I waited a few minutes as they talked, and shot Louis a text to confirm his exact location. He was at the park as I predicted, though he said he had gone to the Market followed by a winking emoji. Louis’ emoji game wasn’t stellar, so I wasn’t sure if he meant he’d been at the French Market or if he’d “wink wink, been to the Market” in some other context. Not all vampire mysteries are deep and complicated. I pocketed the phone just as Susannah appeared again at my side. We walked slowly and she told me that after we’d talked she’d felt embarrassed by the grief she’d shown over her father’s passing. I assured her that there was no reason to feel that way and she countered that no, the embarrassment had actually been a good thing. 

“I left you that night and when I got home I felt like talking to you helped me even more than I’d let on. It was like a huge exhale of grief yes, but also of a breath I’d been holding most all my life. So I called up some family friends, you know after a death everyone tells you to call if you need anything - people don’t always mean that but these folks, I knew that they’d been sincere. I called them and said I needed to get away. The next thing I was in California in a beautiful house right by the ocean. Have you ever been?” 

“A time or two, yes.” I nodded. She was caught up in trying to fill me in and I listened attentively as she threaded her arm around mine. As we entered the park, there was a small group gathered in one corner but at the other side, only Louis and not completely surprising, Brian. They looked up as we approached and I watched her face as Louis smiled at her. “Careful, of that now, he’ll mesmerize you.” I teased and let her go to him. 

“Ms. Jamison, how wonderful to see you again.”

“I was out in this madness with friends and ran into Julien. It’s so nice to see you as well. But let me say, this craziness is so much better than a stuffy old party. And who is this?”

“Brian Callahan, Ma’am.” Our friend stepped forward and I watched her expression change even more than it had for Louis’ disarming smile. “My pleasure to meet you.” 

“Brian…” She thought for a minute. “Have I seen you at any of the parties with these two? You do look familiar.” 

“I doubt it Ma’am, I’m not much of a social butterfly.”

She laughed. “First of all you have to stop calling me Ma’am, and second of all, if you’re associated with these fine gentlemen, I’m certain you’ve learned a thing or two along the way.” She turned to me, “And I’ll bet he’s a stunner in a tux, isn’t he?”

“Brian can wear anything - or nothing at all for that matter - and weave a spell all his own.” I quipped and watched him shake his head. Louis said nothing to my remark, but I got a look. 

“I can’t stay really, I have to get back to my friends. They’re here from Ohio and this is a little outside their comfort zone.”

“Susannah, we will all have to get together some evening. You’re very right in saying it’s nicer outside of the formal events and I look forward to catching up.” Louis leaned in for a short embrace and when he stepped back, I thought she was going to pass out with pleasure. 

“I’d like that ever so much,” She swooned. “Mr. Callahan, can I hope that if we do have such a gathering some night soon you’ll be in attendance?”

“Ah, no Mister if I can’t call you Ma’am, Ma’am.” The broad, sincere smile was second nature to him and while Louis was dazzling for mortal eyes, Brian while handsome, could be anyone’s next door neighbor. “But yes, I’d like that so long as it’s agreeable to our hosts.” He nodded first to Louis then me. 

“Now who wouldn’t want to have you along?” She touched his arm flirtatiously. “We’ll do it then, soon. I look forward to it.”

I walked back out to the main street where she claimed she was fine to go on unaccompanied. “You referred to us as Gentlemen didn’t you?” She nodded and took my arm as she had before. “This kind of craziness is no place for a beautiful lady alone, so I must insist.” I looked back over my shoulder, but Louis and Brian were already gone. 


	10. Words With Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks for taking the time to let yourself become invested in our writing collaboration, and for your kind and insightful comments.

**Words With Friends**

**(Lestat and Susannah)**

**Written by Leshan**

On any particular night when I found myself in need of both internal and external quiet, I took to the rooftops as I did so long ago in Paris. There was something comforting about being above the rest of the city so secretly, just above the heads of families watching television or a couple making love. Tonight, with a lovely influx of cooler air swirling around me, I lay on the roof of the Grand Lake house, our  E'clairage, looking up into the stars with nothing specific on my mind. More to the point, there were things on my mind, but the starry sky captivated my attention and let my mind float freely. 

Breaking my meditation, the phone rang. I knew it wasn’t any regular contact because it was a regular ring rather than any I’d assigned. This was my private number so whoever it was, it was someone I’d want to talk with. I fished it out of my jacket and almost lost it through my fingers. It wouldn’t be the first to crash to the pavement. 

“Bon Soir,” I said pleasantly.

“Julien? It’s Susannah. I hope it’s still alright to call you. It’s not too late is it?”

I looked at the screen. “It’s only 11, I’ll be awake for hours still. How are you?”

“I’m good. Do you have time to chat?” 

“For you? Of course. Is anything wrong?”

“Not really. I’m just having a lonely night I’m afraid. I don’t want to trouble you.” 

“No trouble at all. I’m quite free at the moment.” I thought of a plausible line. “Rene and Brian have gone to dinner with some friends and I didn’t feel like tagging along. I’m all yours.”

“Brian. He’s the one who I met over Labor Day right? What’s his story?”

“That’s him, yes. Brian has been a friend of ours for a very long time. He’s the proverbial Jack-of-all-trades. He does a little bit of everything for us.”

“Ah, he’s your factotum.” 

I searched the vocabulary database in my brain. “Yes, actually. His job is to do jobs for us. I’d never call him a handyman, but he’s definitely....” 

“He’s awfully handsome.” 

I sensed her wanting to say more with that, but it was better for me to dissuade it from the start. “Very handsome yes. I’m afraid he’s also very spoken for in a long-term relationship.” 

She sighed. “Of course, they always are.” 

We talked for a long while of the changes she’d made in her life since her father’s passing. I told her not untruthfully that she looked fantastic and it was good that she’d turned it around so positively. She’d done more than that in my opinion, she was thriving and not merely surviving. There’s a big difference. 

“Would it be too bold of me to invite you over if you’re going to be up half the night anyway?” Her laughter was light and welcoming.

“The question, Ms. Jamison, is whether it’s appropriate for a fine Southern lady such as yourself to be keeping company at all hours.” I said in my best drawl. 

“Fiddle-Dee-Dee,” She answered like Scarlett O’Hara. “I don’t pay mind to neighbors and what they think.” She broke the act with a dramatic exhale then in a deadpan voice added, “I guess that means I’m  _ not _ so fine and Southern anymore.” 

“You’re both. Where do I find you?” 

“For his out of town guests, daddy had a condo on Carondelet. I’ve been staying there until I decide what to do with it.” She narrowed down the location though I could have found her just by listening to the wind. “Have you had dinner?” 

“Oh no, no. I had way too much earlier.” I didn’t lie there. My thirst was insatiable lately. “It’s nice of you to offer though.” I patiently listened to her directions and told her I’d see her shortly. I thought about the blood lust and how it oddly spiked and waned. I wondered if it was anything like mortal vices, say, drinking more alcohol under stress; People could speculate that I couldn’t possibly have any stress, but they’d be wrong. Since coming home, well, I didn’t want to think about it now. Why show up on her doorstep in a huff? When I reached her locale, I paused a moment to steady and sober myself, to effectively warn myself to be wary of such piqued hunger in her company. I could handle it. 

Multi-family residential buildings are interesting for vampires, far more so than any other building where people congregate. It’s nearly impossible, particularly for those young to the blood, to ignore the cacophony of life in such buildings; People are eating, sleeping, cooking, fighting, crying, talking on the phone, making love, yelling at the ballgame - it’s all quite fascinating to our senses. Even in the upscale buildings like this one, it was there. She came down to meet me rather than just buzz me in, the hospitality second nature. She wore a light cardigan with a pink T-shirt and dark blue jeans. She was barefoot, and I found that absolutely delightful. 

Inside the suite I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t bone white minimalist decor. One wall served as a gallery for several local artists, one I’d known fairly well before his untimely death (due to sudden illness not my teeth, thank you) and the other walls had been painted in what I felt was a uniquely New Orleans shade of orange. “Very nice.” I said as I looked around. Original hardwood floors, skinny oak plank with all the imperfections were sealed in a just-right gloss and the white that was in the room, the couch and side chairs of a soft, uniformly smooth leather stood out beautifully. 

“It certainly isn’t the mansion but I like it well enough. Daddy had a decorator warm it up, you know most of these places are white walls, white countertops - that just wouldn’t do. Daddy wanted our guests to feel at home, not like they were in a hospital room.

“It’s very inviting. I love the touches of gold in the granite.” I gestured to the countertop and she ran her hand over it admiringly. 

“Please, have a seat.” She laughed, “Sorry. I’m not very used to having guests here. You’re sure I can’t get you something to drink? I made pizza earlier if you’re hungry.”

“You make your own pizza?” I asked. 

“I love to cook. When I was a young girl, daddy spent a lot of his time away on business and I spent a lot of my time in the kitchen with our staff. So yes, I learned to cook although pizza with andouille and spinach isn’t exactly gourmet. Would you like some?”

“No thank you. Rene and I went out for a bite earlier.”

“How is that charming man of yours and when are we going to get together?” 

“He’s doing well and I know he’s looking forward to the three of us getting together soon. He also sends his condolences for your father.”

“How kind. Please give him my thanks and do let him know I’ve pulled myself together. I know you’ve already told me there’s no need to apologize, but when I think of the mess I was when I told you.” She shook her head as she poured herself a glass of white wine. “Now tell me where you went on vacation. I want to hear all about it.” 

She settled in on the opposite side of the couch with her bare feet tucked underneath and I told her as much as I could; Tropical, remotely located, verdant, all that minus that this paradise is exclusively for card-carrying immortals, in this case, the kind who drink blood. 

“Now that’s what I’d love: A vacation. Visiting an old college friend in Florida hardly counts but I guess it will have to do for now. The foundation, my foundation now I guess is begging me to come out of hiding for the Christmas benefit. It’s hard to believe the holidays are just around the corner. If I agree to a command performance, you have to promise me you’ll be there.”

“Christmas? I haven’t given it the least bit of thought really.” That much was true. Since my homecoming I’d had more immediate interests than holiday fundraisers. “Remind me later and yes, I’m sure I can make room on the calendar. There’s nothing I can’t rearrange.”

“No holiday plans then?” 

“As I said, I haven’t really thought about it but since we just had our vacation I think we’ll be staying in the city this year. We’ll get together with a few old friends,” I thought twice about that choice of words. “You’re welcome to join us of course. New friends are always welcome.” 

“Your accent is delightful. I wonder if you even hear how it plays with certain words.” She laughed and leaned closer to me. “Actually I’ll be spending some time with my Aunt just outside of Memphis. She’s in such a way that she doesn’t fully understand that her brother’s passed on, and I’d like to visit before she joins him. Now about that accent, tell me how long a time you spent in France?” 

I told her as much as I could about my homeland with lovely descriptions of the rolling hills and small villages. No matter how many years passed or how many lifetimes I lived I could remember the smallest details and she was delighted with the picture it painted. We talked as she sipped her way through another two glasses of wine and when her eyelids grew heavy and her speech slightly slurred it was time for me to take my leave. She protested but I insisted that Rene would be wondering where I’d gone. She walked me to the door and slouched against the frame in an inviting fashion, reminiscent of many ladies who’d struck that pose while making very unladylike propositions. “Tonight has been nice.” I laid my hand atop hers and felt once again an appreciation for the friendship that was beginning between us. “We’ll do it again soon I hope.” 

She didn’t say anything but a blush came to her cheeks. “Now that right there? I’d ask you to stop that but I’m not sure you know how..” 

“Stop what?” Mortals will feel a ‘vibe’ around us whether it’s anything we intentionally send their way. I thought she was referencing that feeling but she shook her head and continued.

“Your eyes, Julien. You look at me with the eyes of a lover. If I didn’t know you were as deeply in love as you are, I might try to coax you into doing more than just looking.” 

I gave her an exaggerated roll of my eyes and laid on my best southern drawl. “Ma’am, I assure you, I never need much coaxing.” 

She laughed and put both hands on my chest. I stepped back to give her the impression she’d successfully pushed me farther into the hallway. 

“Go on now. You’re terrible.” 

“Oh I do try my best.” No lie there right? I wished her goodnight and headed home to see if my lover had indeed missed my presence. 


	11. Apertif

#  Aperitif 

(Brian)

Written by Gairid

Louis opened the kitchen window and I put the plates and flatware in the sink. He took a moment and went outside to fetch the tray with the rest of the extra bowls and glasses.

“No dishwasher?” he asked just as I turned the hot water on, “You’d be the first one to tell me it is a waste of water. It’ll take ten minutes or less,’ Louis reached over my shoulder and squeezed some of the dish liquid into the stream of running water before wrapping his arms around my middle and rubbing his face in my hair..

“Your friends are interesting. Well-educated.” Louis said, moving beside me and taking the clean glasses to wipe them dry and replace them in the cupboard. 

“Yeah, Art majors all of them, but with different specialties, I said. Louis nodded absently and then he turned and pulled me close. “You know, I like you in a domestic mood. I had no idea someone cleaning up after a meal could be so entrancing.”

“Happily, that would be a good deal of the time you see me.” I remarked “I’m a regular whiz with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. There, see? All done with the cleaning.”

“Join me outside for a drink, perhaps?” he asked. “A glass of your lovely whiskey?”

“And will you also have a drink?” I asked invitingly.

“I could be persuaded.” he said, easily. “Turn off the light, please. The insects will be after you.” 

I followed him outside and he sat down on the wicker bench on the porch. 

I did and with a little help from him, the candles on their little glass holders on the table flickered on, along with the colorful glass lantern hanging from the porch ceiling - a gift from Morocco.

Louis lifted the bottle on the table and poured me a short glass and offered a toast. “Atamanaa lak kl khayr.” 

“You pick up languages so easily..” I said with a smile. “Is that Moroccan or Arabic?”

“Moroccan, though I don’t think they are all that different.”

As so often happened, I was caught in his gaze, the glass hovering near my mouth. “Go on and drink,  _ cher.,”  _ he whispered close to my ear. “So I may indulge a little with you.”

I knocked back the whiskey, delightfully smooth with a lovely bite to it. He offered another and I took it---for his indulgence as well as for mine.I saw hunger in his eyes and it drew me toward him.He took me into his arms and I leaned back, exposing my throat to him and relaxing back against his outstretched arm. He took that as his signal to lean forward and sink his teeth. The pain was immediate and intense and I felt a tightness in my groin. Louis chuckled into my ear. “So predictable, my Brian,” I felt his mouth at my throat again and I gasped when he battened onto me,attending to the pull as he drew more blood from me. His mind opened to mine and he spoke, his mind voice at once soothing and somewhat concerned.


	12. Intoxicated Part One

#  Intoxicated

(Louis)

*Written by Leshan

“Lestat?”, I called his name but received no reply. He was seated at the piano which faced the door. It had taken me no time to find him for he wasn’t baiting me in the usual teasing catch-me-if-you-can game we so enjoyed. Rather, he had of late been spending more and more evenings away from the townhouse and tonight, he’d wandered into a familiar jazz venue, closed for renovation. Both arms were folded beneath his head on the piano top as if he’d become exhausted in the middle of a composition. “Lestat,” I stood beside him and touched his shoulder.

“Mm?” Slightly startled he sat up. “Oh darling, hello.” His eyes heavy and glazed, drunken and overcome with what had to have been true feast of blood; he was ever the lion, sleeping off his kill. “Come, come sit with me.” He reached up and before I could think, he’d plunked me down onto the keys and moved between my legs. “There was a melody while I drank. I thought I could hold onto it and play a little but you know how such things go,” He waved his hand in the air. “Elusive. But this yes, a much better occupation.”

His voice was thick as he brought his hands to my waist and hinted at unfastening my pants. “Lestat, I wanted to…” 

“Tell me what it is you want.” His laugh held the thrill of predatory intent but he didn’t wait for me to tell him anything. “Do you dream of the hum, Louis? Have you heard it since we’ve been back from the island?” 

“No, but I suspect it was something exclusive to the,” He cut me off again. 

“We should have stayed longer, really. Why come home at all? We could have stayed indefinitely.” 

“Mm,” He closed his eyes. “The time when we looked over and saw the couple on their balcony making love but also making our love. We were them, they were us.” 

“Beautiful and intense,” I added, recalling the moment. He stood up and drew my legs up around his waist. The piano keys dug into my back and my head came to rest awkwardly as he moved over me. 

“Find it with me, Louis, the hum.” 

His hands were under my shirt, moving up to my throat where he held me fast. I couldn’t escape the depth of his eyes. I was helpless prey as his mouth crushed mime. Could we find the hum as he seemed to think? My mind floated back to the memory again, the couple on the balcony making love, with one eye on us as we watched them in turn. 

I felt his attention shift. “Well,” He said, his lips so teasingly close. “We’re about to have company.” He lifted away and I turned to see Brian outside the window. I had half a minute to question how he’d intuited our location before Lestat took the lead. “Do join us won’t you?,” Lestat’s tone seemed cordially incongruent to the look on his face as he held open the door while I righted myself. 

Though the invitation was accepted, Brian had lived in our realm long enough to sense when to tread carefully. He cautiously approached the bar, his eyes taking in Lestat then shifting to me. 

“I thought tonight was the opening of the play we’ve been planning to see but realized it is next week. I started back home but then I heard you and I figured...” 

“You heard me?” 

Brian looked at him pointedly. “You’re transmitting pretty loud tonight.”

“What can I say?” He gave a slight shrug but instead of any further explanation, he drew in a slow breath and started toward Brian. 

We exchanged a look but realizing my facial expressions could be misinterpreted, I delivered a clear mental transmission.  _ Nothing to fear. Just let him... _ \- but as before when I’d been trying to talk out loud, Lestat cut me off. 

“None of that,” He cocked his head and extended one finger in my direction and then again he was a study in contrasts as he drew that same finger softly along Brian’s cheek. “Just let me what?” A low laugh before leaning in to breathe that warm, mortal flesh and let out a slow, audible breath against the same. It was the ageless dance of a predator with his prey. 

I caught Brian’s efforts to speak to my mind, but the effect Lestat was having on him was causing it to break up. On some level I couldn’t help but to find it fascinating and wonder just where Lestat might take it, but to a greater extent I felt the wish to intervene. “Brian,” I put my hand on his back and as I did, I heard Lestat inside his mind - no, I felt him there. Long ago, Lestat had been describing how it was for us to be able to hear so many mortal thoughts at one time. He’d said it was like being in a room with a hundred television sets all tuned to different channels. As I stood behind Brian, it was something like that only the televisions were all set to a channel full of the bristling, brilliant energy known as Lestat de Lioncourt. It was most unsettling and I had to call Brian’s name again before he turned to look at me. 

I guided him toward the door mindful of the volume of my own thoughts. He’d found me surely by tuning into them or to the beating of my heart and both were telling signs to say the least. “Lestat and I have some things to discuss privately. I’ll be along soon.” He shook his head not in agreement but to clear the fog. 

“I’ll have him home before dawn. Nothing to fear.” Lestat said, echoing my earlier words. 

I watched him walk away then turned around. “What is wrong with you?” I asked with my last ounce of patience tapped. 

He shook his head and turned to walk away. “I haven’t the head for an argument, Louis.” 

“And I haven’t the head for further tolerance and speaking of things when it’s convenient for you.” I walked in front of him. “You will not make him pay the price for your indecisiveness, Lestat.” 

“ _ My _ Indecisiveness?” 

“Yes, indecisiveness. All along, you’ve said, no, you’ve encouraged this moment and now that it’s nearly here you act like…”

“I didn’t  _ encourage _ it.” He emphasized the word pointedly. 

He walked out the door and stood on the sidewalk looking one way then the other as if evaluating the best route of escape. “You damn well didn’t  _ dis _ courage it.” I said as I stepped in front of him. It felt good to say things that were long overdue. “You said I should come to terms with having to do it or the alternatives. Is that what you’re hoping for? After all this time and all that he means to me, all that he means to you … do you think, do you want me to kill him or send him away?” I scoffed. “Send him away. As if that would even be possible. He’d prefer death.” 

“Mm yes. That much I understand.” He nodded before looking again toward the Gulf.

“Then understand this: Whatever the reason Lestat, I will not allow you to toy with him. He’s not one of your throw-away mortals. I am hoping…” My steam was already depleted and while I didn’t enjoy arguing with him, the fact that for once he wasn’t provoking me made it hard to maintain. “I don’t know what I am hoping, but if Brian and I are what’s causing all this,” I gave him a wave-over with one hand, mimicking his gesture. “Then we’ll leave you to the city” I walked over and sat down on one of the benches by the fountain. He remained where he’d been standing and for a change, said nothing. Instead he looked at the sky, inhaled deeply to gauge the wind. There was a storm coming north from Cuba with pressure changes and the fresh smell of ozone already in the air. He was probably thinking about flying to the very edge of the swirling clouds, the wind fiercely whipping his hair but down here, all the wind seemed to have gone from his sails as the blood swoon diminished.


	13. Intoxicated Part 2

#  Intoxicated - Part 2

(Lestat)

Written by Leshan

He was right as usual and while Louis was rarely what I would call harsh with me, his tone left no room to doubt that he was justifiably confused, irritated and above all, weary of my recent response to the pending situation with Brian. As I stood there in the shadows, I was relieved to feel the delirium of the swoon fading away; there would be no reasonable discussion so long as I was swimming in the electric current of mortal blood. When I started toward him, there came a deep rumble of thunder and the winds made a sudden shift - dramatic in my style to be sure, but completely coincidental. “Why don’t we get inside somewhere?” I suggested as I looked once more to the sky. “The house on Julia?” He stared at me for a few seconds, I thought perhaps trying to discern if I was trying to be evasive, then started off in that direction.

More than any property we owned, the interior decor here had become quite eclectic over the years. There was contemporary art alongside locally created folk art sculptures, baroque-era chairs and other items that at first glance seemed quite incongruent. Louis laid his jacket on the marvelous Chesterfield couch as he sat down. I leaned over to run my hand appreciatively around the thick glass edge of the coffee table that had started the streak of decorating madness and as always, thought of how it came to be mine. That recollection would have to wait for another night. 

“Do you remember when Brian first came to our city?” I walked around toward the dining area and paused to pick up a Nyman glass vase we’d purchased in Austin.. Of course he’d remember. Our memories for better or worse, were unfailing but for in some cases when it was convenient. “You’re right to call me out on how I’ve been acting.” Not something I say frequently so he looked faintly surprised by the admission. “I know I’ve been saying for some time that you needed to make a decision about him even though you’ve certainly understood that very thing without my prompting. I suppose I should be relieved or happy or any of a dozen other adjectives, but even right now with you here, just me and you talking it out, I still find it difficult to label what I’m feeling.”

“You don’t have to label anything you know.” He put a hand lovingly on my shoulder. “It’s complicated for all of us.”

“Not really.” I said as I moved away. I needed space to be able to say what I had pent up for months. “Back when you introduced me to Brian, from the very earliest nights Louis, I saw in your eyes what you felt for him and over the years it’s grown to be something very deep and admirable. You feel something for him that you’ve never felt for anyone.”

“Not true,” He started to object. 

“I’m not talking about what you feel for me, though that is a factor.” A sigh escaped me and all of the hours I’d spent alone thinking of this discussion flooded my mind like a rogue wave. 

“Lestat,” Seeing my distress he tried to intervene. 

“No, please, just… let me collect my thoughts.” He nodded and I thought about a few vague discussions with Susannah that had left me wandering the darkened back streets as I thought things over and tried to drink away my confusion. “The others,” I continued, “Merrick, Madeline and even, maybe especially Claudia, were all… incidental.” 

He slumped, stung by the remark. “How can you say that?”

I stood suddenly and paced the full measure of the living room before I answered. “Do not think I’m saying your love for her was false, but she was not  _ your _ choice.” The volume of my voice increased on those last three words more than I intended, but let it be emphasized. “She was a bribe, an insurance tactic thrust upon you, and in the end the love you felt for her was a prison. You know all this is true so I won’t drag it out again. My point is, even Claudia did not stir within you what the years with Brian have created.” He started to say something but couldn’t find the words. “You have nothing to apologize for Louis. The love you had with her is legendary, but fraught with every conceivable dysfunction the three of us shared in that time.”

“There were indeed many.” He nodded and gave me a smile filled with knowing melancholy. 

“But Brian?” I continued. “In these years gone by I’ve watched the two of you grow closer, I’ve watched you teach one another things, laugh together and I could have been jealous - in fact there are times I have been jealous but not in the traditional sense of the word and do you know why? Because you’ve never once excluded me.” Images of the three of us sharing so many nights together came to mind. We’d seen only a few arguments, a great deal of laughter, physical love and a much greater closeness than any of us might ever have imagined possible. Before my beloved could speak, I continued. “You could have said, ‘Lestat, you’ve had your many mortals, now this one is mine.’ but instead, you incorporated me from the start.”

“He would never have wanted me all for himself. He loves you very much. He’s very concerned with what you think and feel, especially now. None of this has been easy for him.”

“Understandably.” I sat down opposite him and said nothing more. Lightning flashed outside the windows and I felt myself thirsting again for the feeling of the blood more than any sustenance it could provide. A great part of me wanted to hide from the whole subject at hand. As much as I loved Brian, I had to confess that lately I’d had shameful drunken moments of wishing he wasn’t part of our lives but I would never admit that out loud. The greater truth is that while Louis and I had our illustrious history long before, Brian had made us each better as individuals and as a couple. Finally when some silence had allowed us to reflect I said, “We weren’t ready back then, either of us and even if we had been, I don’t think we could ever have given her what she needed.” 

“Two sides of the coin at once; She needed us and yet how fiercely independent.” He watched the lightning play upon the curtains like a film reel of memories. 

“She didn’t  _ want  _ to need us at all. If she’d been a grown woman, she’d have been gone into the night like my own mother. But now, you’re going to be a wonderful teacher to Brian in this life because you two have come to know one another so well. Time has given you that guarantee, unlike our impulsive union.”

He turned his eyes upon me and how marvelously frightening they were in the flash of the storm. “If you and I had taken time to get to know one another beforehand, you’d have been bored with me in one night’s time. Then where would I be?”

Louis and his truthful, deadpan humor. The sound of my laughter filled the room. “You might be right about that, my love. You just might be right.” His smile was genuine and warm with appreciation for the levity of the moment. Just as quickly however the humor faded as I remembered myself a week or so before speaking out loud, rehearsing this very discussion as I sat alone on a rooftop. “I know you’ve been worried that I’m going to leave you again.” 

“Mm.” He gave a slight nod. “Is this where you tell me those fears will come true?” 

I lowered my head and didn’t answer him. I heard him get up from the chair and realized he may interpret my silence as affirmation and simply walk out. “Louis,” I said abruptly. When I looked up he was indeed nearer to the door. “Wait.” I shook my head and stood up. 

“If you’re going to go, just say so, just make up whatever excuse you feel you need to give me and be done with it. As a matter of fact I don’t even need or want to hear them. Just be on your way.” 

Did he realize how well I managed  _ sometimes _ to not be the impatient jerk when he said such things? “Louis, listen to me. I’m not going anywhere, but you my love… you are about to embark on something that as I’ve already said, was never this way with the two that knew your blood in their veins. While I have many mixed emotions just now the one thing I can say is that bittersweet happiness is predominant.”

“Bittersweet?” He wasn’t convinced.

“You would be the first to say how much progress we’ve made recently wouldn’t you?” He didn’t have to agree verbally. “And look how you’ve helped me to see the truth of things I was doing to sabotage our relationship over and over again. You help me every single night my love, whether I readily admit it and Brian has helped me in ways he may not even know. There’s no way I could really be anything other than happy for what is transpiring here with the two of you but yes, bittersweet because I also know that it isn’t me who’ll be leaving Louis, it’s you.” 

“What do you mean? I have no such plans.”

“Not physically perhaps but for what you’re about to do, you will take the love that’s ever bound you to me and put it toward forging a new life with the one you bring into this world.” I raised my hand slowly to stop the objections. “I know your heart so well. Even with the others, you did not give them this life thoughtlessly. You would never  _ be _ so arrogant and cavalier as I have been in the act of bringing others over nor could you leave them to fend for themselves as I have done.  _ Because of the man I know you are Louis _ , you will be everything to Brian that I haven’t been for any of you, but to do it, you’ll immerse yourself willingly and completely.” 

“Beautiful Lestat, you do break my heart,” He said and began to walk toward me. “You are not losing me.” 

“Not for all time, no, but for a while, maybe for a long while. And don’t do that - I’m fine.” I hoped my face showed confidence as I spoke. While it might be easy for anyone to speculate that as a vampire has eternity no separation truly matters, I can say that to an extent my heart was breaking quite beautifully over the whole situation. “This is my excuse, love, for staying away from our home and for my intolerable behavior. I had to weigh it all out, and I’ve come to see it as yet another part of the magnificent tapestry of our lives.”

He curled the fingers of one hand into his palm and gently pressed it thumb side against his lips. I have my dismissive hand wave, Louis has this gesture when words completely fail him. “There is no way I can tell you how much I love you right now.”

“Just right now?” I teased gently as I went to him.

“For all time, my Maker. For every second of this life you’ve given me.” Tears welled in his eyes and ran down upon his cheeks.

“And for all time, you are the life that has been given back to me..” I answered as I kissed them away until our mouths met and we proved that love until dawn’s first light. 


	14. Second Watch

#  Second Watch

(Lestat and Susannah)

Written by Leshan

As my friendship with Susannah grew there were moments, many moments actually, that caused me pause with bittersweet observation of our understandable differences and the knowledge that her trust in me was based on a complete illusion. For the times this woman would throw herself into my arms laughing with youthful excitement and bring to me the provocative scent of that vitality, I felt something stronger than guilt: I felt I should walk away, and sooner than later. 

Louis had asked me one evening if I planned to reveal myself to her and my answer was a solid no although it wasn’t as if I hadn’t entertained the idea. When she would ask about my family or remark on how intimately I spoke of historical facts, part of me wanted to hand her a familiar book with highlighted passages and notes in the margins. Instead, I went along under my well-backed, Google-proof pseudonym with the understanding that there would come a time as came with all mortals, when I would have to leave her. 

“Julien, you look troubled.” She sighed over her coffee cup. I was shifting pieces of a danish around the plate as I gazed out the window. “Is it Mr. Destrehan’s write up?” Her fingertips came to her lips as if she’d said something taboo. 

“That old goat.” I laughed, thankful for the distraction. “I can tell you he likes to make lewd propositions to unavailable men. As to his speculative blurb it doesn’t trouble me in the least. I found it quite amusing.” 

“Oh, me too. It’s only natural I suppose. You do stand out in a room and as much as I’ve tried to stay away from the socialite gossip…”

“Your reappearance at the auction gave them something to talk about.” 

“Surely my handsome escort helped that cause.” She removed the lid from her cup and picked at the rim piece by piece, dropping inside. “It’s a pity that Rene couldn’t come.”

“Don’t feel awkward bringing his name to the table. This thing we’re working through isn’t some high tragedy. Love has to be flexible to survive, right?” 

“I suppose. Not that I know very much about it.” 

“What about this, what’s his name? Alex?” 

“Allen, and we’ve only been on four dates so it’s far too soon to gauge whether he’s even love material, whatever that is.” She had whittled her cup down to the last half-inch. “Do you think it’s something you ever really learn to recognize?”

“I think that no matter what turbulence the future delivers, you do know when you’ve found that one. The poet Rumi wrote: “ _ The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere, they're in each other all along. _ ”

“That’s beautiful. Maybe someday for me right? When I least expect it?” 

“Definitely, but don’t focus on not expecting it either. You know? A koan of sorts. The sound of one hand clapping.” I gestured accordingly. 

She rolled her eyes. “You’re a koan, Julien.” 

“I think I’ll take that as a compliment.” I bowed toward her and took her hand before the last bits of cup were sacrificed. “Come on, let’s take the long way home little sister.” 

*****

We meandered through the Garden District and onto Canal where she stopped abruptly. Several overserved tourists stumbled out of a bar just to our left; An imminent altercation between two of them and a trio of locals, each larger in size than the last. We moved across the street and stood under the awning of a relatively quiet souvenir shop.

“Sorry, but I just remembered - I got an offer on the condo!” 

I watched the group outside the bar with the thought that had I been alone, I’d have followed the inebriated young men and left them drier than they’d been at any point of their vacation. “Hm?” I answered her. “Oh, you have?”

“A Professor moving here from Dallas. He didn’t even flinch on the asking price.”

“So it’s a go then?”

“Isn’t that crazy? I put it on the market but now it feels like I’m letting go of something important and I don’t have anything else lined up. I haven’t exactly been examining the real estate listings.” 

“I’m sure you could find something quickly, and as far as letting go of the condo, nothing says you can’t change your mind.” She shrugged and I had a sudden thought. “Just a moment, let’s back up a bit.” I turned around and motioned for her. “I want to show you something.” 

“What a quaint house.” She remarked as I led us up the front walk. 

“One of many investment properties that Rene and I own.” I stood in the comfortable living room and held the door until she was inside. 

“Ah, it’s lovely.” She ran her hand appreciatively along the back edge of the Chesterfield sofa. 

“This house is done in what designers might call ‘modern eclectic’, mostly to my tastes. We brought that over from the main house some years ago.” I didn’t add that two relatively famous vampires had enjoyed fevered lovemaking upon it just the night before. 

“Have a look around. I want to step outside for a moment; I completely forgot an important call.” There was no truth to my statement, I just wanted her to get a feel for the space without me. In the meantime, I did check my phone and volley a few texts with Louis thinking that I could publish a book exclusively full of such exchanges. The auto-correct hilarity alone would sell volumes. After enough time, I headed in to find her in the upstairs bathroom which was nearly as large as the living room. “Well, what do you think?”

“Very interesting. I love the little cabinet in the bedroom.” 

“Chinese Art Deco as I recall. Like I said, eclectic.” It had been a gift from David who defined that word himself in some ways.

“Very. But somehow the way it sits against that hung carpet is perfect.” 

“I’m glad you find it pleasing.” I followed her out and down the stairs. “You can stay here if you like, if you decide to sell the condo.” She turned in surprise and I nearly ran into her. “For as long as you need or want.” 

“But surely,” She looked somewhat confused.

“No pressure. You listed your condo as furnished and everything you’d need is here from towels to dishes. We haven’t rented it in quite some time. It’s not good for a house to sit uninhabited for too long you know.”

“Is that so? Do ghosts start coming out of the woodwork?” 

“Not that I’ve experienced - not here anyway.” 

She sat on the long leather couch and I perched on the opposite back corner. “You know, what you said earlier,” Her eyes flashed a passing sadness, “You do it so often - little things you say and you just don’t understand the impact they have.”

“I have a knack for saying the wrong thing so let me apologize in advance.” 

“No, it wasn’t anything bad. Back at the restaurant, you called me little sister. It was touching. Being an only child, sure I was spoiled but I always wanted an older brother and I want you to know how much it means that you think of me that way.” 

I sat next to her and we settled into a comfortable conversation with the television in the background. Eventually she fell asleep and I carried her upstairs to the bed and put the keys on the side table with a note. I watched her for a minute and felt as always the deep, nearly bewildering adoration for mortal beauty and beyond that, for the fact that she like so many, was unaware of her own allure. As I left the house I thought of my own mortal years and understood that even then I had a fascination for all things beautiful and horrible. Dostoevsky is rumored to have said that beauty would save the world. I wasn’t sure about that sentiment, but with certainty I knew that beauty was calling me home. 


	15. Prelude Adieu

#  Prelude Adieu

(Lestat and Susannah)

Written by Leshan

  
  


Several nights went by before I heard from Susannah but they were nights well spent. Whatever had called Brian away was apparently taking longer than he planned. Louis assured me it was nothing to worry about so rather than speculate, we went walking and hunting as we hadn’t done in some time and then back home to fall asleep satiated in more ways than one. 

When Brian returned, I sat at the table in Pirate’s Alley where I’d seen Susannah all those months ago just after her father died. A low fog was rolling in off the river and had I not already soothed my hunger it would have been a perfect night for finding a wayward tourist and teasing them about the dangers of vampires in this city. Instead, I texted my friend who so far as I could read, had no such suspicions of my true nature. 

:: Are you ignoring me?::

// As if I could. No, sorry, just busy. Finishing dinner with a friend. Free after 9//

::Won’t Allen be jealous?::

//Who’s jealous? You? I’m not with Allen. Where should I find you?//

:: I’ll find you. ::

I was feeling predatory and thought that it might just be a good idea to have just one more drink and disappeared into the mist. There was an abandoned warehouse I frequently checked but with a menacing laugh I said aloud: This whole city is my territory. My mouth twisted in a snarl as I moved around the back of the place and stopped to sense it’s vacancy. I couldn’t resist a look inside and found that the only inhabitants were the nearly decomposed bodies of the two men I’d taken the night I’d come home from the island. I leaned on the doorway and checked my phone for the time; No point in lingering here for I could sense no one in the immediate area. I retraced my route back toward the center of the Quarter with the realization that the predatory feeling had shifted to unspecified restlessness if that wasn’t what it was in the first place. In this city there were memories in every corner and ghosts aplenty - sometimes real, sometimes only in the heart. I could picture Louis and I walking with Claudia, his laughter as he imaginatively answered her every question. The scent of centuries of death was embedded in the worn sidewalks. Each alley was a recollection of whispers, embraces, denials and desire. And now…

“And now, what?” I asked myself aloud as I paused outside of Wrack’s joint. Even that was quiet this evening, so I passed on a social visit. Susannah was just around the corner anyway, her heartbeat calling me in a thrilling and dangerous way. Just one taste, the voice in my head begged, just one time. That voice, the voice that went back to the creation of our kind, was more a curse than any sort of blessing, particularly when it came to mortal friends. She was standing outside an antique shop looking in the window and when she stepped back and saw my reflection was over her shoulder, she gasped sharply and spun around. 

“Don’t DO that!” She said, angrily at first then with nervous laughter. “Seriously, I nearly…” 

“Peed your pants?” 

“Oh, you!” She swatted my arm. 

I wondered at what point the differences in my body would occur to her. She looked around and headed toward the nearest bar but I pulled her arm. “Not that one,” I advised, and steered us to a much less raucous place just down the street. Once seated at the bar, she ordered a glass of house red, and I declined the bartender’s service. 

“You’re not much of a drinker, are you?” 

“Only when I can no longer bear it.” 

“Bear what?”

“I mean when it’s been a long time since my last drink, you know.” 

“You try to be good.” Her laughter was a sweet invitation. 

“More than you can possibly know.” I put my hand on hers, my thumb resting on the pulse at her wrist. “What’s kept you so busy?”

“Oh!” She pulled her hand away and emphatically placed it on my forearm. “The guy who’s buying the condo? He is due to start teaching in two weeks, so he wants it immediately, furnished and all. So I’ve had to hire people to pack up what I want to put in storage, daddy’s things and some favorite art pieces. There’s that and getting the deal finalized. Let me tell you, I wish I had someone like your Brian to take care of business for me.” 

“Mm, he’s good at that to be sure.” 

“And you - I’m so sorry I didn’t even call to thank you for the other night. I mean seriously, Julien. You carried me up to that insanely comfortable bed after you said I could just have the house? Who does that?”

“Me, I suppose. Does that mean you’re accepting?”

“Well,” She finally exhaled long and slow. “No.” 

She drew a long drink of wine and I stared at the dark red liquid and her lips upon the glass. If there was an ancient voice in every vampire’s head it wasn’t whispering to me now, it was laughing far off in the distance. 

“Jules, look, it’s a generous offer and it’s certainly a lovely home. But I think the way things are happening, you know, converging, it’s pushing me in a direction that’s honestly a bit frightening, but I think I know what I want to do.” 

“Get out of town, I bet.” I once more took her hand and she laced her fingers into mine. “It’s understandable.” 

“It is, right? When my father was alive, we traveled together sure, but I’ve never gone off by myself and I think I’m more myself now… enough of myself to go off and find the rest. Does that make sense?” 

“You know it does, my beautiful friend. I think it’s perfect. Do you have a destination in mind?” 

“No, not really.” Her eyes shone with excitement as she took another long drink. “Greece maybe, or someplace exotic like Bangkok.” 

“I’ll miss you.” I said sincerely. 

“I’d ask you to go with me but I am guessing you’d say no.” 

“You’d be right. It will be good for you to go alone. When are you planning to leave?”

“I’m not sure. I have a few more nights before turning over the house. I’ll spend them looking over websites and go from there. I’d say by next Tuesday I’ll be on a plane to parts unknown.” 

“Your excitement is wonderful.” I said, then felt it an awkward statement. “I was feeling a bit out of sorts, I mean. It’s good to feel your excitement.” 

“Is anything wrong?” Her concern was immediate. 

“Nothing in particular, you know how it goes. Would you like me to walk you home?” 

“I’d love for you to walk me home. You know how it goes.” She slid off the barstool and leaned against me. 

I heard that far off laughter again and while it was only imagined, I thought maybe I should go on a little adventure of my own, find Armand and kick his ass for no particular reason. That would be cathartic. “I have a feeling that wasn’t your first glass of wine tonight, little sister.” 

She laughed softly, “I do love that, and no, it wasn’t.” We headed out, leaning into one another here and there as we walked. “I have a confession. I lied to you earlier. I was with Allen. You know, just kind of wrapping things up, no harm no foul.” 

“But I had already guessed you were with him so it wasn’t really a lie.” 

“Oh? A loophole.” She giggled. “You’d be a good guy to have around for quick excuses.” 

I nodded. “I’ve been known to deliver them quickly and creatively.” 

“I’ll remember that.” 

We’d arrived at her building and she leaned against the elegantly curved balustrade. “I’m so glad we became friends.” 

“I feel the same. For both of us it happened at a good time, yes?” 

“It did. But this isn’t goodbye. I’ll be back, so much the wiser for seeing the world.” 

“Not before you see me again. I’ll call. Are you good to get upstairs?” 

“Perfectly fine, the wine’s wearing off.” 

I watched her until she’d gone inside the front door and turned to wave at me, and then I started off for home. It was good that she was heading out as she said, to find the rest of herself. It comforted me and relieved some of the irritation I’d been feeling, but it had not entirely dissipated. From a shadowed corner I took to the sky and opened myself to the scents and sounds on the wind, looking for loneliness in the heart of a criminal. 


	16. Parting Gifts

#  Parting Gifts

(Lestat and Susannah) 

Written by Leshan

“You seem to have a lot on your mind tonight. Anything you want to talk about?” She asked. 

“Not really. I’m just thinking that we may never know how many people in the world are in the same circumstances as ourselves at any given time - more or less. The trajectory might be a bit different, the initiating factors and the end point of course, but somewhere in the middle we might all be closer to one another than we’d ever imagine.” 

“Just a bit of existential thinking, that’s all.” She looked at me and smiled somewhat sadly, “Who am I going to have such discussions with now hm?” 

Her condo sale completed, her things in storage, some at the house on Julia Street, I’d asked to meet with her given that I wouldn’t be able to see her off at the airport tomorrow afternoon. “I imagine you’ll have conversations and maybe more to share with tall, handsome strangers on board?” She shook her head but her eyes hadn’t lost that glint of excitement since the night we’d sat together looking over river cruise options online and she’d decided first on a trip to Portugal, through the Duoro Valley and then flying into Madrid on the recommendation of a friend. 

“You know I have no intention of “hooking up” as you say.” 

“I do not use that sort of vulgarity Ms. Jamison” Feigning insult I added, “But if I did, I’d tell you that unintended hooking up is often the best hooking up.” 

“It’s a good thing we didn’t become friends long ago. You’d have gotten me into so much trouble..” She leaned against the railing and gazed with due reverence at the Cathedral. “It will be strange you know, being on my own. Traveling with my father well, as much as he loved me it was mostly on his agenda. Oh I don’t mean that in a bad way, I just mean that I was seeing the locales through his eyes, the things he wanted me to see, his memories and so on. Sometimes no matter how familiar something is, you can never really see it the way another person does, that’s all.”

“Quite true.” I agreed. “Listen, I have a going away gift for you.”

“Julien, see? I knew you were the sort to do that and I almost made you promise but because I think I’ve come to know you pretty well, I knew you’d do it anyway.”

“So what you’re saying is, you were expecting a gift? That’s pretty selfish.” I raised one eyebrow and gave into a smile. “It was just something that caught my eye. You know they say certain stones or crystals have a vibration to them? Maybe you’ll feel it too. I figured it was a good omen but what do I know?” I took the box out of my pocket and opened it. 

“How interesting!” She held it up to the light. “You know, the power of suggestion I’m sure but it does have a certain vibration. What is it?” 

Suddenly I felt guilty - for ever concealing anything from her. I understood that in time perhaps she would be among the few to know all those secrets but for now, there was at least a little truth I could offer. “Susannah,” I sighed. “I’m not telling you the truth about the necklace or more correctly, the amulet. I didn’t find it in an antique shop, I had it made for you.”

“It’s beautiful. But, why would you feel you had cover that up? I’m even more touched.” 

“I want it to mean as much to you as it should.” Before she could ask, I explained. “If it were something more common you might not understand my seriousness. I can’t tell you why completely, but it is special beyond a simple gift and I want you to promise that you’ll wear it for the duration of whatever time you’re away.”

“That will be an easy promise to keep, I’ve never seen anything quite so unusual.” She studied it again. “Not quite a square, almost like two ornate letters back to back, they make a little basket or vase of sorts don’t you think, and the ruby inside, or is it a garnet? I’m sure it will draw everyone’s eye.” 

“Don’t go out of the way to show it off. It will protect you, that’s what matters. I know that beyond anything that any reader in the square could tell me.” 

“I won’t let anything happen to it, I promise.” She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “And thank you. My goodness you’re going to just make me cry tonight, aren’t you?” 

“Never my intention, beautiful lady.” I brushed a single tear away with my thumb. We talked for several hours longer and she scrolled through pictures on her phone of the places she hoped to see. Finally I advised that she’d better be getting to bed or risk missing the trip altogether. She asked me to assist her with the necklace and held her hair as I secured it. “There’s an extra chain in the box if you need it or want to switch the style. Just…”

She laid her hand atop mine. “Wear it at all times. I promise. You know,” Her eyes sparkled with the affection our friendship had nurtured. “I was thinking last night that you’re really the only thing I have tying me to this city now, and you’re definitely the biggest thing I’m going to miss.” 

“I’m an excellent thing to miss.” I teased. “But we’ve already so wisely stated that this will be good for both of us, haven’t we?” 

“You’re going to be alright?”

“I don’t want you to waste one minute questioning it. What you know of any very minor concern I have with Rene is resolving itself by the minute. We’re good so I’m good.” 

“Wonderful news.” She laughed and then threw her arms around my neck. 

With the mortals we know - and those who know who and what we are - physical contact isn’t a problem. Hugs and handshakes don’t have to be avoided or more to the point we don’t have to prepare for them by concentrating on relaxing our posture. I saw the briefest look of confusion cross her face when she stepped back, her brows furrowed only for a few seconds as any question dissolved. 

“I love you big brother.” She said and turned to walk back toward her hotel. Over her shoulder she added. “Tell that man of yours to take care of you.” 

As much as I understood that her future was unfolding in a way it never had before and that this was a good thing, I was really going to miss her. So far as my man taking care of me, he’d done that quite well for decades on end even when I hurt him time and time again. Like Susannah, he was departing down a whole new path and while he would never truly leave me, there was definitely a part of me that already missed him. 


	17. Interception

#  Interception

(Lestat and Brian)

Written by Leshan

  
  


It was still early when I got back to the townhouse. Louis was gone but had left a note on the desk in the front parlor indicating he’d gone with Perry to an auction. Ah yes, that baroque desk he’d had his eye on. Well, as women of a certain region might say, bless his heart. It was his custom to leave these notes and even in their brevity his elegant penmanship stood out. I had quite a collection of them locked in several decorative boxes, some of which were stored away in what I’d come to think of as our Coven Archive, deep in the heart of this city, secure beyond mortal measure.

I folded the note and tucked it into the pocket of my jeans, then headed upstairs. I’d heard and more to the point, felt Brian’s heartbeat the moment I entered the house and I found him in the music room, lying on the sofa with his eyes closed, lost to whatever streamed through the headphones. I glanced at the display on the sound system to note he was enjoying the remastered Brahms violin concerto that was the last thing I’d listened to myself. When I turned he was watching me, his eyes peaceful as he removed the covering from his ears.

“This is gorgeous, Lestat.” He looked drowsy, lulled by the music. “The adagio is everything.”

“On that I will agree.” I said as I sat down beside him. “But I’ve a fondness for adagio movements in most any piece.”

“I would love to see this performed live. It’s been too long since we’ve all gone to the symphony.”

“We’ll search the world for such a performance. London perhaps?”

He nodded as he sat up and placed the earphones on the table. None of those little earbuds for this house. Top of the line old-style to hear every note with indefinable quality. “I uh, Louis invited me along to go to the auction, but I was hoping to talk to you.”

“Well, here I am.” I held one palm up to express my approachable mood.

Those peaceful eyes had become less so as he gauged my mood. “Alright. Well first, Louis told me what you said to him at the house the other night. I wanted to thank you for that not just because it meant so much to him to hear you say such things, but because I’ve been sensing that you weren’t you know...okay with all of this, that you didn’t want…”

“In the end Brian the situation with you and Louis doesn’t hinge on the opinions of anyone but the two of you. If he shared with you the reason for my apparent conflict, then I’m sure you understand.”

“I do.” He nodded but didn’t face me. He sat with his elbows on his knees and looked down into the labyrinth pattern of the rug. “You know, he doesn’t want it to change anything.”

“But there’s no way it cannot, and that’s that.” I said without malice. “Louis and I have eternity ahead of us to level things out in time. Even if he spends the next century with you exclusively, what would that be on our timeline?”

“A century.” He repeated softly. “And without this, I might have less than half that time. But you know I wouldn’t even allow him to be away from you for so long. You do know that, right?”

“You’re going to be a bossy fledgling then? Telling your maker what he can and can’t do? Oh, I’m sure he’ll like that.”

He drew in studied breath and turned toward me. “I want to talk to you about that too.”

“Stop right there.” I told him and was met with a look of surprise and slight alarm. I brought one finger to my lips and gave him a mental push. “This isn’t something to discuss in the traditional way.” He looked puzzled so I went on. “You have been the conduit for Louis and I at times to experience one another in the way a maker and fledgling cannot innately experience. Mind-share by proxy, right?”

“Yes? So?”

“David’s instruction on how to shield your thoughts was meant more to keep other vampires from intruding for whatever reasons they may have, but I know you’ve used it to deflect even Louis and I at times - and there’s no judgement for that Brian. Sometimes he and I just drift without intending. But as much as Louis laments the loss of mind-sharing with me, all of us can admit that there are times when that ability to close the mental gate is a blessing.”

“I don’t know if I’d call it a blessing exactly, but yes.”

“And this thing I saw in your mind just now, the thing I’m pushing against, should be deflected from Louis.”

“What do you mean?”

“Neither of us want him to feel hurt in any of this. You know that as solid as he is, and as placid as he may appear, his emotions run deep especially where you’re concerned. We can have a conversation about this, but there’s a protocol you could say.”

He gave a little nervous laugh. “As many years as I’ve known you and I should still be taking notes.”

“It’s nothing too complex.” I assured him and then held my arms open in invitation. He came into the embrace and I tilted his head back. “And you might even enjoy it.” I kissed along his neck slowly, up to under his ear then retraced the path to settle on the quickened pulse beneath my lips and without further preamble, sank my teeth.

Mortal understanding of the process would require the mental image of a television on mute with me standing in front of it, blocking any interpretation of the dialogue to whomever may be seated on the couch trying to enjoy the program. No they can’t “see” around me; It’s a small television and after all, it’s my powerful mind doing the blocking. Does the blockee know it’s being done intentionally? Hard to say. In this case, it’s merely Brian sharing himself with me in a way that’s long overdue - the give and take of pleasure by all appearances and it’s not as though Louis was somewhere constantly scanning Brian’s mind. The conversation behind that curtain is all mental, and conducted far more in pictures or ideas than words but it went something like this:

_ “Close the door, Brian.” _

_ “What do you…” _

_ I felt him lean both body and mind into me, losing himself to the initial overload before he recalled what he’d come to learn of this process. Then an image of his mouth against my throat in similar fashion, the feeling of my blood being drawn into his mouth even though outside this space he was the sole donor. With the idea, the fusion commenced, the circuit became complete and beyond intrusion. _

_ “Now, isn’t that better?” _

_ “The feel of you inside me, how I’ve missed it in every way.” His voice grew more confident as he pulled himself back from the pleasure enough to think clearly. In the mind space then, we stood apart as we conversed. “This is the problem, Lestat. I wouldn’t have this with him anymore and while he says he’s accepted the fact, you and I both know how much he resents not being able to truly share his mind with you.” _

_ “Yes, but as I said, sometimes it’s for the best. I don’t know that all the workings of one’s mind should essentially be open to anyone, particularly those they love the most.” _

_ “But I want him to have it, if for no other reason than I know how much he’s yearned to have it with you over the years. You have learned ways to do it, but to be able to do it from the start?” _

_ “I know what you’ve been thinking. I’ve seen Tristan in your mind and while Louis may believe you’re simply comparing and contrasting situations, I know you’re thinking far more about who turned him.” _

_ “You didn’t do it because you wanted to retain the mind-share.” _

_ “Not entirely. You know by now I rarely do anything for a singular reason.” _

_ “Then why?” _

_ “Not important. What I will tell you is the solution you’ve been thinking of isn’t, as you’ve also told yourself, quite so simple.” _

_ “But it is, really.” _

_ “You don’t believe I’m going to call Daniel and say ‘Hello yes, I know I haven’t spoken to you in some time, but that thing you did, can you do it again?’ do you?” _

_ He looked at me with more patience than I deserved. “It wouldn’t have to be Daniel, of course. It could be anyone. I’d prefer someone in the Family, but it could really be anyone couldn’t it?” _

_ “Should we put an ad out somewhere?” _

_ “Maybe, in a sense.” A mental shrug, but then he shook his head. “David maybe. He’d do it if you asked, wouldn’t he? For Louis? He was there to see what the whole Tristan affair did to Louis after all.” He paused as I physically shifted. “Ah, oww, okay, sorry. But he might. Or someone outside, I don’t know. Wrack even.” _

_ Mentally, I looked at him abruptly. “Wrack? Jesus Brian. Regardless of all that, you don’t think Louis would object to standing by while another brought you into the blood? You must, otherwise you’d have presented the idea by now.” _

_ “He would think I was doing it because of his resignation to losing the mind share with me and you’re not the only one who can have multiple motivations for his actions. Louis knows of course that I want to have the mind-share with him, but I don’t think he realizes how much I want it. The bond he and I have created, Lestat, when I think about losing the mental intimacy, there are times I feel that death itself would be preferable. At this juncture, I understand more than ever the reason he misses having it with you.” _

_ “And he and I didn’t… bond as you have. Not for so long before the act was done. I’ve often speculated that to be one reason he wishes for the mental link so much. He knows me, he knows my life as much as anyone could, but we never had years of luxuriously swimming in one another’s souls to really forge something meaningful before trying to navigate eternity.” He stared at me and I felt him latch on tighter mentally while externally I felt his arms pull me closer. He was turning my words over in his mind like strange gems that had suddenly appeared in his hand. _

_ “I don’t want to lose it with him,” He repeated. “Or with you. Where we are right now, lost to the world, it’s indescribably precious.” _

_ “You won’t lose it with me to be sure, and believe that I understand the depth of your desire to not lose the connection with Louis. But Brian, I just do not see him being as they say, ‘on board’ with finding someone to do the turn. I can’t even imagine who he’d see as a good candidate and I’m sure you’ve intuited his other reasons for wanting to be the one even if he hasn’t spoken them out loud.” _

_ “Redemption, to a point.” _

_ “Something like it, yes. No one has truly received the gift from Louis with the love he feels for you. In the others there was need certainly, and he inherently cared, but you Brian, he cherishes you to a depth beyond words. Everything he’s ever felt, or more truthfully, longed to feel for a mortal would be made manifest in your immortality. Something that powerful shouldn’t be discounted.” _

_ “I’m sorry,” He said softly. The taste of tears then upon my lips outside the mind space. “I don’t mean to be selfish. I don’t know how to feel all of this, Lestat.” _

_ “You could never be selfish, Brian.” I held him closer, physically and mentally. “It’s you who deserves an apology from me. From both of us really, overall. It is unkind in many ways to pull a mortal into the vortex of this life as intimately as you’ve experienced it. I am sure Louis has said as much repeatedly, without words.” _

_ “How sweet the taste of his sorrows.” Brian whispered against me even as I thought it as clearly as I had all those nights ago when Louis was yet a mortal man. _

_ “Tonight, go for a long drive outside the city or take a few nights away. He’ll more than understand your need for some space to think. If you still feel this way about a proxy, I won’t discourage you and if you need or want, I’ll join you to discuss it with him.” _

_ “You know I love you, Lestat.” _

_ “I love you too Brian, purely and deeply. Never doubt it.” _

It was then in both realms that I felt him drift away, temporarily exhausted from the entire effort. I held him against me and stroked his hair while he dozed then laid him out comfortably on the couch and headed downstairs. There was time yet before dawn and I needed my own space to think. ****


	18. Sur La Mer - Part One

#  Sur La Mer - Part One 

Written by Gairid

**(Louis)**

I went to him, out there, the boat floating in the Gulf and Brian, my Brian, drowsing in the cabin. I spoke his name warmly.

“Louis?” His mind voice came to me. “You are here? Please come to me.” I dropped to the deck and he came up out of the hatch and into my arms. The air was chilly and so I led him back below out of the wind, taken aback somewhat by his greeting; he seemed quite anxious.

We crept in beneath the bedclothes.

“What is this,Brian? What’s the matter?”

“I should just have spoken to you about it from the get go.” He muttered, looking into the far distance.

“About what? Has Lestat upset you?” 

“What? No. No,far from it. He had good advice. Offered to help.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Come on, Louis. I can tell the difference. Why would you think he upset me?”

“You have been anxious around him of late.”

“Strange days.” I said with a slight shrug. His expression softened and he came to where I sat on the bed. What made you come out here?”

“I was worried you might be getting cold feet.”

“Not a chance.” I said with a smile. “Why? Are you?”

**(Brian)**

Oh, Louis’s smile is so beautiful. I wondered, not for the first time how Lestat can handle that. He is most often the one who is the one who is on the receiving end of that gift.

“Not a chance.” he echoed. I felt the sting of tears as I looked at him. He put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in. “You are cold. Get under the blankets.”

I did as he asked and with the familiar heat building in me, I watched him remove his clothes. He folded them and placed them on the shelf beside the hatch. I presumed to do the same while he checked and locked the hatch before he joined me in the bed, gathering me close and pulling the blankets over us. He smoothed my hair back over my forehead and rubbed his cheek against mine.“I have missed you, Sweetness. Missed your scent, missed the feel of your flesh, missed your heat.” I felt his hardness against my belly and I clutched at his back, my breath coming short and the nerves in my body firing frantically. “Ah. So, my darling, you missed me too?”

“So much.” I gasped. He took my words into his mouth, and pushed my legs apart with his knee.My gasps turned to sighs as he nibbled at my neck. My mind was a welter of pleasured confusion.I drew my fingers across his lips and pressed into his mouth. I raised my hips in silent offertory. He accepted and pushed inside me.

How good it was to be filled with him, how right. He picked up a slow rhythm and I rocked against him with a ragged moan. His silken hair was a veil around my face and he hummed into my ear, a song of his own pleasure. He brought me to climax calling my name in the cabin, his green eyes locked to mine, and I thought again, how beautiful he was. He groaned as he released into me at last and I felt the prick of his fangs in my neck and he took a measure from me I dozed against him for awhile when he withdrew from me and he woke me after some time had passed

“You must tell me how you are feeling, Brian. You are familiar with what changes are ahead of you, but, how do you feel about it?

I smiled at him. “I think about it all the time. Anticipatory, I suppose, is the word. How about you? I know this cannot have been an easy decision for you.”

“Once, it would not have been.But you have changed me and I knew after some thought, that I needed to keep you with me. With us, Lestat and I. No matter his reluctance, I know this is something he feels, too. It’s why he is not putting up more of a fight. You don’t realize, Brian, what you have done for us, How you have changed things for us and what that means to us.” He paused and regarded me frankly.

His satisfied chuckle was salve to my soul. 

Now, then. Do you have this beast of a boat anchored for the night?”

“Yes, Louis. All’s well. We’re well out of any shipping lanes and the lights are on.”

“I should not even have had to ask.” he said, “You are your usual efficient self. Now, then. I expect this is a good time for us to have some discussion regarding what lies ahead of us. The elephant in the room, as the saying goes?’”

**(Louis)**

His face warmed with a lovely flush of color. I could smell the blood as it rose up his neck. It was as he would say, a major distraction. “There is something I want to put before you before we speak with Lestat.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” he said curiously.

First let’s get this idea of yours for some surrogate maker off the map. I very much appreciate your reasoning. It’s close to my heart as you clearly understand, but you needn’t worry about any loss of intimacy with that unfortunate, to me, at least, and lamentable limitation. As grievous as I find that loss, I must say I cannot fully countenance the idea of anyone other than myself bringing you into the Blood. I think, in time, you will understand. Even with the loss of mental touch, that Lestat is my Maker means so very much to me. Do you see? You are mine, Brian, and it would be a dreadful mistake to bring someone between us in that manner.

He hung his head slightly and I could discern his thoughts quite clearly. He was worried that he had hurt my feelings. I drew him close. “Brian, I understand your feelings. You have not hurt me --far from it. Now...I have something I need to ask you.

I moved back up the mattress and lay back on the mounded pillows and he snuggled close, laying his head on my shoulder. “Ask away.” he said, easily. “I have not brought this up with Lestat yet, and I am not sure of his reaction, but I wanted to ask you first.” 

“Alright.”

“I wish to ask him if he would consent to giving you a measure of his blood. You understand how powerful he is; what he contributes would bestow immeasurable strength to you and there would be much less to worry about, regarding any danger from others of our kind. How would you feel about that?

“If you feel strongly about it, I’m fine with it. I like the idea of Lestat having a role in this, to be honest.” Another warm glow came over me from his slightly abashed expression. He can be so very dear.

“I feel it would cement us as a family and give Lestat a measure of inclusion that I think will ease him a great deal, if he consents.” 

Brian laughed then. “He might put up a small protest, but when does he deny you anything, Louis?”

I smiled at his fervor. “As you say” I leaned and kissed his face, the tender eyelids, the skin of his forehead. “You know, Brian, I like your hair longer like this.”

He grinned. “Piratey, huh?” 

“Yes.” I agreed solemnly. “Piratey.”


	19. Sur La Mer - Part Two

# Sur La Mer Part 2

Written by Gairid

**(Brian)**

“Will I head back so we can dock the boat and get on the road home? There’s plenty of time.”

“Do you feel some urgency to ge back?” I asked curiously.

He stretched his body out and looked at me. “Not urgency, as such. More like I feel like Lestat shouldn’t be alone.”

“He was off to see Miss Susannah earlier. He has no trouble keeping occupied, as you well know.” It wasn’t obvious, but I noted the tightening of the skin between his eyebrows and some slight tension along his jaw. “You disapprove?”

“Do you?” he asked.

“No. He is fond of her. He has always been one to cultivate friendship with mortals.” 

“Friendship.” Brian said musingly as though the word had a flavor and he was just now tasting it.

“Just so.” I assured him. It was odd that the situation had pricked him so. He drew in a sigh and released it. “If you say so.” he said with an air of reluctance. “So. We’re going back to New Orleans?”

“Perhaps back to the dock. We can go back home tomorrow evening.”

I got up and put some clothes on against the cool evening. Louis rose and began dressing as well. “You understand what it would mean to be granted a measure of Lestat’s blood. You have tasted him, I know, but a generous draught...incalculable how much it will strengthen you. You know the story behind it. Blood from Akasha..Lestat had a great deal of it. From Marius. Your familiarity with him perhaps clouds your thinking when it comes to what a gift it would be.”

“You don’t need to convince me.” I said, thoughtfully. “I suppose I thought that I would get some measure of his strength through you.”

“So you would, but it’s not the same, though I can’t really say why. A factor of dilution, perhaps. And a factor of temperament, I have no doubt.”

He nodded.”I’ll take your word for it. You would know better than anyone.” He opened the hatch to the stairs that led to the deck and a chilly sea wind swept through the warm cabin. “It’s cold out here. Come on, there are jackets in the wheelhouse.” Brian said, following me. Once in the wheelhouse, we each grabbed a well-worn jacket from where they hung so neatly on the wall and I watched with interest as Brian switched on the various components to guide the boat. He laid in a course on the computer screen that sat to one side and then, before he started the motor, he took a leather case down from above the wheel and the compass and opened it carefully, drawing forth a sextant.

“A little old fashioned,but It’s good practice for if I am ever in a situation where I must rely on the readings I take from it. Will you take the readings for me?”

“Most certainly.” I said taking a-much-written-in pad of paper from him and following him on deck where he took a place by the rail and together we located Polaris and he took his reading from, calculating the distance from the star to the horizon. I noted it down and we went back inside. I watched him plot a course back to the docks, after which he did the same on the computer where he noted with some satisfaction that his navigation with the sextant had been accurate. He started the engine and we were on our way.

The exercise in navigation seemed to have put him at ease---the earlier nervous agitation was gone. I mentioned it to him. “I suppose you must think I’m off my rocker.” he said. “I mean I have wanted this for so long, yet I have a hard time even talking about it. ”

“It’s not a decision to be made lightly. You worry about seeming cavalier about what is to come. No need. I know you have gone over it in your mind in detail and I know you understand the seriousness of your decision.”

I know also that you are thinking about Lestat. As I said, I will speak to him when we arrive and you will also wish to speak with him, yes? It is then we will have our answers from him, Brian.” I looked at him sidewise as he leaned across to turn on the heater for the wheelhouse. “Are you nervous about the process?

“No. Well, maybe a little, but it’s not a thing, you know?”

“It really isn’t. Uncomfortable, yes, but not horribly so as I recall. It’s not a secret that you already enjoy bloodsharing.” 

Louis isn’t big on displaying the fangy grin, but it he did it this time. 

“It’s also no secret that you know just how much that little grin of yours turns me on.” I said pointedly.

Sit here with me and calm yourself. We have some things I would like to discuss. You understand why I would rather not include someone else in the Turn, don't you?

He launched himself across the bed and into my arms and settle against me comfortably. 

"Of course I do. After years of knowing you, I know how much it's weighed upon your spirit and how much it would mean to you to not have lost the ability.

"I will share a secret with you, my love." He said.

I raised my brows. "Oh, do go on!" I said lightly. He smiled.

"I know I often tend toward the more argumentative side of my personality with Lestat. Turbulence keeps him engaged, you might say." 

"Might?" I said with a chuckle. "There's a man who loses bits of his soul when he becomes bored."

"Just so. So. with this at the top of my mind for many years, I found something I could safely argue about. Trapping him into being one the wrong side of anything is very much not the direction that is likely to be in any way useful, is it? And if I am being completely honest, I will state that I myself don't like to be caught out on the wrong side of any sort of argument either."

I nodded. "Who does?" I asked to the room at large,

"Exactly!" So, in order to keep from blowing things well out of proportion., I tend to err on the side of caution when I choose to engage in any argument with him. I rarely think his opinions are wrong, so to speak. He has a fine, fine mind and if anything, he has a tendency to overthink things. When he argues that there is a certain sort of elegance to the barrier, he's correct. It's a protection against the sort of overblown arguments that could easily sunder a relationship rather than keep it whole. What makes it so painful is the sudden seeming emptiness brought on by missing something you had grown used to relying on. Like losing one's security blanket.

I looked at him, dumbfounded. It had not occurred to me that he'd thought this through in such a thorough manner, though suppose it should have; so much of what he does is with his beloved Lestat at the forefront of his thoughts and he does his best to take Lestat's very strong feelings into account most of the time.

It occurred to me it would be a good thing to try and do the same for him, my own Maker, to show him in such a way how much he means to me.


	20. The Clean Up Man

#  Clean Up Man

**(Lestat)**

Written by Leshan

Brian had woken and gone out on the boat: I saw him in my mind not much caring if he knew I was looking in. Another time I might have joined him, for there were times when I desperately needed the calmness that the water brought to my mind. Tonight however, I was highly agitated and there was only one thing to take off the edge.I found the streetcar full of Saturday night tourists and several ladies in tight pink sequined dresses along with a woman in white sequins who wore a sash designating her as the bride. She looked at me repeatedly, each time longer than the last. I was wearing what looked like tinted prescription lenses so she couldn’t see my eyes - no more of those lusciously overdone purple sunglasses for me. Louis had smashed the last pair in a relative fit of exasperation one night as we argued, and I hadn’t replaced them. I could have though… Ebay is rife with those trashy cool collectibles but I believe he might have made me eat them if I’d shown up with another pair on my face. The last time she looked my way, I pushed my simple brown glasses up onto my hair and met her stare. Why hello, lovely. The warm, invisible shroud surrounded her as our thoughts intermingled. _ Is he the right guy? /. Why would you ask me? I’m a stranger on a streetcar./ No, more than a stranger… not real, but real. How… are you hearing my thoughts?/ They’re louder than you realize. Alcohol and anxiety make the blood taste bitter./ What did you say?/  _

I popped out of the mind conversation as easily as I’d slipped into it, lowering my glasses once more. She was dazed for a minute as her friends leaned in too close with drunken laughter. I nodded discreetly before stepping off the streetcar on Canal.  _ What can I say baby, it’s a crazy city, these things can happen.  _

There were apartments beyond where the old Iberville projects used to stand that had inherited all of the project’s problems. They’d seen me there before, very out of place and something for the fearful to fear. The old woman in 21B, she’d known when she saw me one steamy August night. The cleanup man. Accents come through in thoughts, and so it came across as klaen-up mon, but potayto-potahto, right? Sometimes I went straight after the drug dealers because I loathed them and they made it so easy. Smart as they figured themselves to be, they were no match for my speed and even less of a match for loving the hunt itself. 

But tonight as 21B surmised, I was on cleanup detail. The caliber of intelligence didn’t usually match that of the gun in hand, and most victims weren’t fatally injured. They lay in abandoned buildings or on sidewalks, some begging for help, some unable or unwilling to cry out. They knew death was on the way, they just didn’t figure he’d have remarkable blonde hair and wear finely tailored clothing. Well why not? The hooded skeleton and scythe stereotype was so worn out. “It’s so 1980.” I said with a laugh as I rounded the corner of one of the duplexes. Several scents rose in the thick night air. Marijuana mixed with sweat, fear and yes, best of all, blood. 

All blood essentially is the same; it is the base ingredient, the life itself understand? The circumstance and emotion of the blood that flavors and scents it for predators. A child who has fallen and gashed their head holds no interest for a vampire. On the other hand, a man who has just victimized a child, his blood bubbling with shame and pleasure - that is downright tantalizing. 

I watched the deals go down - that guy there, his street name had to include the word ‘heavy’. He was massive, not just in weight but in height, big hands, deep pockets, lots of product. An hour passed without incident, then the scent of panic rose on the breeze. I closed my eyes and inhaled. Three shots sliced through the thick night air, one so close I might have caught the bullet if I were so inclined. Could I do that? Would it go through my hand and leave me fascinated? Let’s not find out tonight, Lestat. 

The sound, the thunk as the bullet struck flesh… the burn and burrow into yielding flesh. It brought my senses to full attention. So many sounds, instantaneous but in slow motion: Feet scrabbling against loose pavement, voices calling to one another, fleeing, evading, but for the one, the fallen. And who was it but Mr. Heavy, his pockets cleaned out by those who ran into the darkness. 

Oh… it was going to be a feast. 

He had tried to run after them, but there he was, fallen in an overgrown lot. “All this time, you’ve been selling to them your instinct told you they were bad news, and you didn’t listen.” I said as I approached him. “What is your name, big man?” “Kuh, kuh, Kevin”, he answered. I had to resist mocking his stutter. “Well Kev it’s a funny thing about instinct, intuition… call it what you will. When you willfully overrule it there’s a price to pay.” His eyes widened. “But you knew that already.” I don’t know why but suddenly I was overwhelmed with the urge to laugh until my sides hurt because it was comical in some way, the theater of life with the cast and crew on the stage of the streets. “That was a well-aimed shot. Blood tripping it’s way to your lungs. You feel it? It might have been Cantrell that got you. You know that dirtbag calls himself ‘Trel’?” He choked out an affirmation. I dragged him across the field without effort though naturally he tried to struggle. Out here there was no chance and no witnesses as I pulled him behind a building painted thick with graffiti. Talking to him all the while might have made this particular scene appear more horrific had someone been watching, but the truth is, a cruel kill is not unenjoyable. Wolves don’t lose sleep over the cries of the sheep.

I leaned him against the rotted boards and knew I couldn’t waste another second on words. He was there mentally - all too much really. That urge to laugh again, but before I could I was on him, exposing that thick neck, his head going so easily to the side. I sank my teeth deep and there came the gush, a thick, spurting fount of his life becoming my life. Deep, succulent waves of it filled my mouth and sweetly burned my throat. My nerves came alive, each sense heightened as the blood came, the drug that sought the need in me. I gorged myself, and when I was done I fell back, quite indeed like an exhausted lover with my eyes closed to appreciate the full infiltration. 

A noise came from the far left: The slightest crackle of weight on wood. Inhalation. The scent of mortal blood. My vision blurred from the quantity I’d consumed, I snapped my head and caught the shadow of a man, not the boss, Cantrell, but one of his Posse. Without hesitation, I moved to him faster than he could interpret. I was still fast in the swoon, deliciously hazy but instinctively alert. He lurched toward me and I smashed him backward into the wall. He let out a great whooshing breath, and I leaned his head to the side. No chance, no questions, he was mine with a low growl of pleasure as I took him. But immediately, I pushed away. I spat at the ground. Tainted like rotten fruit - whatever this guy had in his blood, I damn sure didn’t want in mine. I grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his head so he could fully see me with my eyes narrowed, a definite look of displeasure. You were supposed to be dessert, my man. I shook my head slowly, and then with merciful speed, I broke his neck and let him fall. 

I leaned against the frame of the dilapidated door and let my breathing slow, then let it slow more until it was barely there at all. The sweet intoxication returned and I floated in dreamy eddys for several minutes, savoring the sway. 

On the walk home, my mind drifted. For as often as I bitched about any one facet of New Orleans or another, the thrum and noise coupled with the charm and legend made it a gaudily painted mirror, a reflection of the blood itself. 

Me, the drunken philosopher again. When I was nearly home I encountered more than the typical crowd at the corner of Bourbon and St. Ann. Men, women and anything in between danced in the street and yes, I was hungry for them all despite my earlier glut; I was on a blood binge. A tall blonde man bumped into me, “Look at us!” He exclaimed too loudly. “Twins!” Not exactly darling, but you’ll do. The not-so-little drink commenced - a little dance, a little kiss, wash, rinse, repeat. Just a nasty mosquito bite on a warm Louisiana night. The next drink from a stunning brunette drag queen, then from an older tourist having the time of her life. Too bad she wouldn’t remember that souvenir. 

My head was reeling and I could no longer resist the laughing fit that had threatened to overtake me earlier. I sat down on a worn, crumbling stoop and gave into it until several from the crowd looked my way. Ah yes, so loud. I waved a hand - disregard it, this is nothing of concern. I got up and tried to assert a more serious posture as I walked the short distance to the townhouse and entered through the front door.

I threw my jacket onto the back of the couch and stood there listening to the quiet of the room. I picked up Brian’s lingering scent, but more than that his pulse, the thrum of his heart, quick and familiar, changed and changing still with each little drink he took from Louis.


	21. Bittersweet and Savory

#  Bittersweet and Savory

Written by Gairid

**(Brian)**

We were quiet when we reached the city. It felt right; Louis deserved some quiet time. He never said anything but I knew this was difficult for him...for both of them. Big change coming and of course it had a bittersweet angle to it. I caught that from Lestat especially, but the echoes were to be heard in Louis.It made me sad that the thing that would keep me with him forever was becoming so difficult for them. I wanted Louis to take all the time he needed. I could stay at the flat on Chartres or at the fine house on the edge of Audubon Park if I grew tired. It was not very late and I wanted to tour the Quarter one last time as a mortal man. Eat and maybe even get a little drunk. First on my list was a plate of char-grilled oysters and a cold Dixie beer. 

“An excellent idea, my dear one.” Louis murmured as I turned up Royal Street. “Taste the foods you love one last time; you are certainly one who takes pleasure in nourishment--so you should savor this while you may. Walk the streets of our home in your mortal skin.” I looked over at him and smiled. “I ask only that you have a care and be vigilant. Do you understand?” His voice was stern in a way that I was not used to hearing.

“I understand.” I said.”I’ll be fine. I don’t want you worrying about me. Take your time with your beautiful Lestat and give him what he needs. Reassurance and the love he craves from you always. I will not interrupt you at this time when he needs you, when you need each other. I will go back to the cottage out back after dawn and sleep then. In the meantime, there is no lack of places I can lay my head if I need to. I love you, Louis.” I pulled into the carriageway and shut the car off.

He got out and stood by the heavy door that led into the courtyard. “Be safe,Brian. If you need us, just call. We will hear and we will come find you.” I nodded and came round the car. He kissed me sweetly and I took my leave of him, walking to the open gate and out onto the street. When I turned around, he’d already gone into the courtyard. I punched the buttons on the keypad and made certain the gate was secure before making my way down the street.


	22. Truths  and Consequences

#  Truths and Consequences

Written by Leshan

**(Lestat)**

“My love,” I said quietly and laid my cheek upon his hand as it rested on my shoulder. I roused myself and sat up as he came around to sit across from me. The rippling surface of the pool shone in his eyes, mesmerizing, but I could not look for too long. My head was spinning and I was exhausted so I lay my head back once more against the chaise. 

“Should I leave you to recover?” 

“No, stay. You know how it goes. I’m fine.” I sat up again and shook my head a little. “See?”

“You look, mmm,” He left off without an adjective. 

“I am mm, and you know it.” I laughed easily. “What’s on your mind, beautiful? I can tell something’s weighing on you. Brian didn’t care to join us?”

“You sure you’re up to talking?” He didn’t answer my question. 

I shrugged. “Not as if we’ve never had an inebriated chat before, Louis.” 

“You’re a little more than inebriated lately, but I can see you’re coming around.” 

“‘Just so’, as you say.” I waved my hand in invitation. “Come sit with me.”

“I think not just yet.” He gave me an easy smile. “The blood swoon is still shining in your eyes and as you intuited, there’s something on my mind - other than what might happen if I came and sat with you.” 

I fought against a dour expression. I knew he didn’t mean to provoke me. “Is it now? Mm, well, I wouldn’t want to sway you toward anything you didn’t want to do on your own. Let me sober up fully then.” I stood before he could speak, took off all my clothes and fell backward into the pool. The water wasn’t ice cold but enough so to have the desired effect. My head cleared immediately, but I leisurely floated on my back to give him an appreciable view. After several minutes, I climbed out and retrieved a towel from a small cart near the house. With it wrapped around my waist, I went behind the bar and leaned to face him.

“Feel better?” 

“Because you’re hungrier for me now than you were when you arrived? That does make me feel better, yes. But please, what’s on your mind?”

“Ah, Lestat.” He rose and paced for a short minute. “How many things have we brought to one another in discussion over the years we’ve shared and still, with this, I repeatedly feel a reluctance to bring it up.” 

“Surely you mean because of my mercurial nature as you so often call it.” 

“Yes, and this pending situation with Brian has understandably heightened your volatility.”

“Pending situation.” I echoed. “Is Wolf Blitzer standing by in the Situation Room?” 

“Not just yet, no.” He laughed. “And you’re still the only ‘wolf blitzer’ that matters, I know.” 

Just one of a thousand personal jokes. I wished I hadn’t sobered myself. To look at him I felt a piece of my heart breaking. “Louis, say what you came to say. Brian’s waiting for you.” 

“No, he’s just elsewhere.” He corrected as he came and sat at the end of the bar like a patron I was serving. “Before the turn, I think, no, we think that it would help, we’d like to ask you if…” 

He looked away and I didn’t prod. It was somehow at once amusing and refreshing to see this nervousness. Louis was always the one to think out a conversation ahead of time, consider the angles and what-ifs, and be prepared to manage the discussion regardless of what arose. 

“We would like to ask if you would consent to giving Brian a large measure of your blood to strengthen and protect him.”

I considered the statement, but more so I was waiting for him to add something more. “Is that it?” I asked when he offered nothing. 

“Yeah,” He said as more of a question. Brian’s casual language on Louis’ refined tongue. 

I laughed some, “Well Louis, did you think I was doing all this purely for self-indulgence?” I gestured from my face downward knowing that my skin and for lack of a better word, aura, revealed the abundance of blood I’d consumed since the time I’d come back from the island. 

“Among other reasons, yes.” He said sounding much more like himself. “So you’ve been preparing for it then? I should have known.” 

“You’re preoccupied, but yes. What Brian will receive from you is as you know in essence my blood as well, but … Christ. I just had the thought that in mortal terms I’ll be Brian’s grandfather.” I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. 

“We’re pretty far from mortal terms so don’t fret about it … grandpa.” He teased. 

“Very funny.” I walked out from behind the bar and dropped the towel. “You know what I think? I think before we talk any further about your pending situation, you should more closely examine mine.” I looked down and contracted my muscles to cause an upward jerk. 

“Now that’s what I’d call worthy of investigation.” Taking the bait he came to me and took said situation in his hand. “Private investigation, of course, and yes, close examination.” 

He sank to his knees and began his oral inspection with added manual manipulation, just to be thorough. I did not hold off and let him bring me to quick release that I might taste myself upon his tongue. Taste him, myself in him, taste us before it slipped away. We lay entwined together on the chaise, kissing deeply without words to waste the moment. I maneuvered him beneath me and in the next turn, sank my teeth deeply into his neck. He drew in a choking, staggered breath and dug his nails into my back. Regardless of all the blood I’d taken only hours before, all that I’d taken every night for weeks, none thrilled me like the familiar deliciousness of this my own. Bittersweet, my heart aching and his blood, running through me, seeming to fill every cell, every pore and what was this, overflowing perhaps, coursing down my cheeks onto his and slickening our mouths.  _ Ah oui, mon amour, mon enfant, dans ta beauté... ma vie et ma mort, toujours.” _

“Lestat,” So softly came his voice. Had it ever sounded so beautiful? I wanted him beyond the physical, I wanted him inside me, wanted in some way to consume him. I danced on the cusp of seductive madness until more firmly he said my name and eased from under my weight. “Beloved…” He said no more but traced his fingertips from the corner of my eye downward to my lips where I kissed them with all the reverence they deserved. I moved my head upon his chest and he held me there in silence until my mind reached stable ground. 

“When do you plan on turning him?”

“When he indicates he is ready, but that will be soon. He is tying up mortal loose ends and putting out the word that he will be away for a little while. He wants to see what changes will come upon him and if he will be able to handle himself around those who know him. There are those who will likely realize what has happened. It’s his natural caution. He has lived a secretive mortal life for years and does not see that there will be a problem, but he cannot know the thirst, how it can overtake and how it can enforce its rule over him:enforce its rule over his will. So,as is his way, he is anticipating that since it is unknowable to him as yet, he will be sure not to endanger those he cares for.

Though I could not see his face, I felt his smile as his hands traveled down my bare back. “He’s going to be so different.” I said. I stood up slowly, enjoying the brush of his hand further downward. I put on my pants before adding, “That moment, the first time you see the change. It’s something you never forget. I remember your wonder in those first few seconds. Hell, I remember my own wonder, looking at you as the impact washed over me. 

He nodded. “I couldn’t breathe, but yet I could and each thing, each facet of every single thing, animate or dead as dirt was fascinating.” 

“You did have a strange obsession with dirt for a hot minute, didn’t you?” He let out a great laugh at this. 

“Hot minute.” He repeated, amused by the expression. “But dirt was magical. It appeared to be nothing, inert debris - and it was anything but lifeless. Minerals shone in the light, tiny insects, larva, you know. All that. Yes, for a hot minute I was pretty enthused about dirt.” 

“Do your best to steer Brian toward more cultivated obsessions.” I said, fully aware of the double entendre. He grimaced and shook his head. 

“Lestat,” His voice gentle but more somber. “Are you really okay with all of this? When we talked that night at the house the things you said were so beautiful. I felt then that you were accepting and encouraging this change, but tonight, just now as you drank and after, the taste of your pain swam in my veins and I am left unsure of how you feel.” He reached for my hand. “And that matters to me more than you could ever understand and it matters to Brian nearly as much.” 

“Our first years together Louis,” My voice seemed far away. I let go of his hand and hung my shirt over the back of the chair then continued. “Do you remember all the times we read to one another?” 

“I do, yes.” His slow easy smile was everything right in this moment. “Those times are among my most cherished memories. You were and still are the perfect narrator; The way you infuse drama, sadness, and always your humor. Lying in bed while you read and fairly acted out the lines was a view into one of a thousand ways I would come to love you in the new life you’d given me.” 

“Anatole France, we read passages then I believe. Do you recall the one that fit so perfectly?” He shook his head and I thought to recall it. “It was so fitting, that’s why it stuck and I thought of it each time I committed the act. He wrote “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.” I know we must have come upon that as we traveled through the pages. It gives me pause even now when I hear it, so I can imagine my going on about it.

“I’m sure you did, and with good reason. It’s rather perfect.”

I sat across from him then, full with his blood and the waning blood from my earlier glut in the streets. Rather than electrified, I felt weary. “What we leave behind us is a part of ourselves. We must die to one life before we can enter another.” I repeated the quote almost cautiously and let it hang in the air. Neither of us spoke as the words dissipated, the spoken energy particles floating away in microscopic dust, onward to parts unknown. I thought of the quantity of words, the brilliance they created that so few could observe as we could. Where did they all go? 

“This life, Louis, I brought you into it and it, “the turn”, “the dark trick”, forced you to leave behind part of yourself, but I believe you are among the most if not the most unique to be brought into this life. You resisted for a while, mortal coil and all that, but you wore the new skin in other ways as if you’d been waiting all your life to inhabit it.” He was listening intently but gave an understanding nod. “Because you had already died to your old life. You were waiting for any form of death to find you, and it did.” I held both hands out to my side,  voilà here I am. 

“I never dreamt death would be everything you are, my love.” 

“No one ever does. That’s what makes it so easy, and I brought you to that game, and now you’ll bring the one you’ve come to love into it and he will leave part of himself behind, as will we in turn, Louis.” 

“You’re not losing me. We won’t lose what we have with one another.”

“But we will to some extent and you must not lie to yourself about the fact. The others who received your blood are no longer here to testify that having your own fledgling will and rightfully should lead you away from the one who made you.” He began to protest and I raised my hand. “The love, the devotion, everything beyond impossible intimate explanation of our feelings for one another, that won’t change.” I assured him “But you will be forging that also with Brian. Not the same as what you feel for me I know, but no less a love, devotion and everything that comes with being the one who brought him into eternity. You already know this, Louis.”

“The challenge is hearing and feeling such significance.” He studied the flagstones beneath his feet as the weight of my words settled upon him. 

Again I nodded. “I haven’t changed my position that it’s the right thing to do. There is no alternative at this point and I admit it will be interesting to see not only the changes in Brian, but in you as well, turned father to one so affected.” 

“But in the meantime…”

“There is a part of me that grieves for the part of  _ myself _ that will be left behind as this change comes, understanding that a part of you that will no longer be mine. No matter your argument Louis, things are about to fundamentally change forever for us.” I didn’t add that I felt he knew this in his deepest heart and that this was the reason for he hadn’t already performed the trick. “Yes change happens even for vampires, I hear you in my head repeating this mantra. I understand that in the greater sense, and all my quasi-Buddhist philosophies support that, but despite my agreement about change, I just want to rinse the feel good platitudes out of the way and stand in a puddle of my own grief.”

“I’m so sorry. We never meant to cause you distress..” 

“I know you didn’t and this isn’t more ‘theatrical narration’ to get you to change your mind; I have no angle, no manipulation tactic here. In fact, I think you should get on with doing it. 

“About the infusion,” He paused and we both considered the accuracy of the word. “It brings up another question I’ve been reluctant to ask.” 

“Darling please, you make me feel like a most unapproachable beast.” I gestured and he sat on the ledge at the side of the pool where he reached in and fished out my shirt where it had gotten caught in a perpetual spin. He wrung it out and hung it over the side of the beverage cart to dry. Always so efficient, he was. “When it comes to Brian’s new life, please do not hesitate.”

“Very well. Do you plan to be with us when it happens?” 

“No.” He’d asked directly, and I answered the same. I didn’t know if he’d ask for my reasons, but I proceeded to give them regardless. “When I have my… dalliance with mortals, you’ve said that it isn’t the physical intimacy that bothers you but the emotional attachments I seem to develop and flaunt. Now imagine if say, you knew it was far, far more than an... emotional attachment, say a 1000 on a scale of 1 to 100.” 

“Lestat that isn’t...” 

“Okay, a 100 then. Only a 100 in immortal-feelings. Imagine it’s that and you’re seeing me experience and share it with someone else.” 

He nodded in understanding. “Soon after then. Are you planning to be here - at the house?”

I stood up and pulled him into my arms. “My Louis,” 

“Forever, I am.” 

We kissed slow and long, so good. I wanted to dive into him, to feel him in me the same way, to get lost in that place where only we existed. For how much longer would it exist at all, I wondered. If that sacredness disappeared completely, it would devastate me in a way that no one, even Louis, could understand. Finally, I stepped back enough to hold his face in my hands. “Listen, all of our indecision is over and I’m ready when you are; I’m going to be wherever you need me to be. Okay?” He pulled at his lower lip and still managed a generous smile. 

“Okay.” 

I felt the tension leave his body. Perhaps I had been an unapproachable beast at times and with some topics, but at least this conversation had gone well. “Go on now, someone’s waiting.” 

“Not tonight. I’ll call him. He understands very well that you and I want our time together. Tonight my love, I want to feel you beneath me…” 

I cut off his next words, playing my lips over his. “You do, hm? Just beneath you?” I walked him backward to the steps leading into the house.

“On top,” He muttered in between heated kisses. 

“You deep inside me,” I affirmed. He moaned as I pushed open the door and pinned him against the wall. “Your hands on my hips and pulling me down.”

“Oh Lestat,” He breathed against my cheek. 


	23. Far Afield

#  Far Afield

**(Lestat and Brian)**

**Written by Leshan**

“These many years gone by now, do you still recall our earliest nights together?” The question posed to him in a voice full of those memories. “When you truly understood what we were? Who we were?”

“I’ve thought about those nights quite a lot lately as you might imagine.” A smile came easily as he thought about it. “Required reading, you said. Those nights were so precious, sitting beside you reading all you and David had laid to paper.” In a serious narrative voice he added, “I Am The Vampire Lestat.” 

“Did you  _ really _ say that?” You’d ask. Do you remember Louis’ expressions as he looked on from the doorway or that dreadful rose colored chair he wore threadbare? 

“He loved every minute but he said I was only feeding your ego. I was only too happy to feed that and your appetite.” His eyes locked with mine. “I still am.” He stretched out on the bed exposing lean abs and an enticing line of hair that disappeared beneath the sheet. He hadn’t lost weight exactly, but there was a difference, wasn’t there? Changeling, I thought. Watching him I felt again that to some degree, my heart was breaking. Had I ever looked upon any of those I’d made with the complex love I’d come to feel for Brian? I’d wanted Louis to be certain, I hungered for him in every way imaginable but love well, if love is ever truly capable of definition I think we’d both agree that the salvation of love didn’t enter our relationship  (in? far? ) far too long. For Louis, that love would be born into and from his fledgling from the beginning and while I was happy for them it did drive home all those who’d come to darkness at my hand and our absence in one another’s hearts. There was so much I wanted to say, so many thoughts that has sprung up in my heart, thoughts that I could not speak to either of them now or perhaps ever. Truly his pending change was unsettling long-buried emotions that I did not know quite how to process. On sensing my reflection, his voice softened. “Lestat, come rest beside me.” 

His words never more delicate with compassion for what emotions could not truly be named, he made room as I shed my clothing and nestled in against his warmth. His muscles shivered beneath my deliberately slow caress and what fleeting mortality remained in his beautiful heart called to my own as perhaps it had never done. We faced one another on our sides, our eyes examining all that we saw in one another like a bittersweet movie montage. What a movie it all was then and how I felt to know that at the end, love would prevail as always, just at the right moment and for the right characters. 

He curled his fingers in my hair and kissed me solemnly. “It seems impossible that you could ever be more beautiful to me.”

“All the world will be more beautiful.” I traced one finger along his temple and down to the smile that played on his lips. “And just wait until you see yourself.” Unspoken for both of us was the inclusion of Louis’ name, for me because my beloved had as many intimate moments how he felt on seeing me for the first time as my blood swam in his veins. Naturally Brian had imagined it over the years and more recently with heartbreaking intensity as he lay in Louis’ arms. 

“Lestat,” He hesitated. “For all you’ve been to me, the life you’ve shared with me and for sharing him with me so freely…”

I didn’t interrupt but my expression must have. 

“Yes, I’ve said this all before I know, but there’s just no way I can ever begin to thank you.”

“Not true.” I countered as I moved my body over his with the same deliberateness my hand had shown earlier. I studied his face, “If ever you’ve wanted to repay me, do so by loving him in all the ways I should have done from the start.”

“You know that he doesn’t…”

“I know what I know, Brian.” I silenced him with the gentlest kiss. “And forgive all the bad things he’s learned from me hm?”

“Just… don’t leave.” He moved his hands over my back and his breath quickened with emotion. 

“Ah but, you’re going to have me forever.” I mouthed against his ear. His flesh was fevered with a potent mix of desire, abiding love and the transient grief that could only be known to the three of us.

“And now?” 

“And now.” I pushed inside him easily, bringing his legs up around my waist. He drew in a long, shuddering breath and my name exhaled, a prayer swirling slowly into the ether.

In the years we’ve been together, Brian and I of course have enjoyed all degrees of physical love, but this was nothing and everything: It was goodbye and soulfelt love, it was trust and shared gratitude, it was consolation and reassurance … it was all that and so much that could never be labeled or quantified but which for this moment was desperate to be known. The inexplicable was expressed and received as we moved together in the dim light of his room, there where nothing else existed but the future loomed large. I breathed him in, the scent of his blood-charged skin, the preface of his climax, his sweat… had his mortality ever aroused me so? In his mind, moving pictures, an image of me distilled and preserved, past all the pomposity and legend what was I but a man he loved so beautifully? Our minds connected there and then, the slightest hitch of his hips with me deep inside, did I say to him in silence words of the poets, no, I thought them into him and as he released, returned it back, completed the refrain, out there beyond, yes… the field was there in the deep green luster of summer, hold onto me there my heart sang as I reached the peak. I wrapped my arms beneath and around, clutching his shoulders as we came down together. 

Against my cheek he whispered, “I love you Lestat. Always.” 

I kissed the sweat from his neck, savoring the salty, human taste one last time. In how many hours would he understand the hunger and the dizzying pleasure for himself? “I love you too, Brian. Always.” 

“That was…” He brushed a long strand of hair back from my face. “I was transported. You took me… where was it?” 

Quietly I spoke as I thought of the vision we’d just shared. “Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” I relaxed my hold on him and turned onto my back in his comfortable bed. I recalled the night we’d purchased it, the three of us. Now, there’s a punchline waiting to happen: Two vampires and their mortal sidekick walk into a mattress store. I laughed at the memory. Coffins be damned, right? When it was delivered, we insisted on a rigorous quality control test which at one point left me crashed to the floor with a lampshade comically mangled on my foot.

He drew in a deep, tired breath before turning on his side and tracing one finger around my chest lazily. He pressed his mouth against my neck, yearning to drink. 

“A taste, no more.” I guided him firmly. “Too much now would steal you from him and we can’t allow it.”

“Soon,” He murmured, drowsy and depleted. 

“Very soon,” I soothed. With a quick slash of my finger the blood came forth. 

The wound healed as he fell asleep against me and I dozed, dreaming in wisps of that green field, of Louis in flashes of our past, and of my own transit into this realm. How many years ago now? I had lost track, but still from the darkness came the impossible haunt of his pale face as he bestowed the gift, the heat of the funeral pyre, the star-filled night of Paris beyond the stone window seemed so far away. 

“Lestat,” Brian jarring me from my sleep with uncharacteristic roughness. “Lestat, wake up.” 

The urgency in his voice instinctively provoked a scan for danger as I sat bolt upright. Sensing nothing, I looked to him. “What’s the matter?” 

“Our much deserved rest was longer than we thought.” His concern was palpable. The sun had risen over the rooftop of the townhouse and peeked into the courtyard behind scant passing clouds. The breeze through the kitchen window carried the scent of rain coming in later off a thunderous front to the West. 

“Ah yes, there’s always that isn’t there?” Reluctantly I got out of bed and dressed. There was the concern for the breaking dawn but he had preparations to make, mentally and physically. For my part in the game, one last big hunt this evening. Maybe a quick trip to Miami. I pulled the well worn T-shirt over my head and paused to study Brian in this little home of his, the way he carried himself, his scent, and everything around him. He would soon see it all so differently and I hoped he would take in each facet of how it looked now. There is undeniably and understandably a grief for the life left behind, no matter the future ahead. I went to him and held his hands. “Thank you, Brian.”

He almost asked for what, but instead struggled and found a smile as his eyes grew damp. He nodded. “Ever and onward, Lestat.” 

“See you on the other side.” I kissed his cheek and lingered there, speaking in silence. I released his hands and started for the door where I paused to look back. He watched as I tipped my head slightly to call his attention to the moment, then I opened the cottage door and stepped out into the morning light. Joyously, I lifted my arms to the sky and twirled while he came to watch in the doorway. The mildest pain as my skin tightened against the light, that ancient core panicked for the darkness as I danced. Brian’s face at first full of concern, then wonder. I back-stepped toward the shade of the porte-cochere, fading away from him like a phantom celebrating the promise of the change to come.


	24. Mr. Mercurial - Part One

#  Mr. Mercurial - Part One

Written by Leshan

**(Louis)**

Six hours ‘til sunrise and it was all but done. 

We had given and taken from one another so many times I’d lost count. He had pulled away the last time mumbling incoherently as more of my blood filled him than ever before. I had urged him to rest and he fell into a fitful sleep which I watched over like the father I was to become. 

Naturally this night made me think of the mortal life I left behind and how it was I came to know a greater life that as promised, I never could have imagined. Even as I longed to leave the pain of my mortal life behind, I did not want what I saw of immortality. Not at first anyway. Lestat’s killing of my overseer, but even in the horror I understood that it was a grisly example of what I would become if I accepted his offer. How cruel he had seemed then as he removed the cover from the casket that held my wife and child and pointed out that if I did not as he put it, ‘claim victory over death’, that my fate was to be nothing more than dust and bones. How could I even then feel for him such resounding love and loathing that in the end left me no real choice at all? 

Strikingly different it was to hold Brian in my arms and lovingly reassure him of my devotion. He knew it already of course, but such was the moment. He was not as I had been, despondent and vulnerable. He was choosing to leave behind a life full of friendship and sunlit places. One reason I’d delayed this so long was in fact to afford him the opportunity to enjoy those very things that would forever be changed by his turn. 

These thoughts were broken as I detected the sound of tires on gravel at the end of the long driveway. I went downstairs to meet the immaculate bronze Audi, my emotions swinging from happiness to concern and back again. When Lestat stepped out dressed in shades of deep cobalt and silver, his hair untamed in the wind, I could feel nothing else but the swift current of desire and fascination that undercut any greater reason. 

“What are you … I thought you were going to Miami.” I said as I started down the steps. That lustrous blue and silver shirt silken against his skin begged to be touched.. He’d gotten it on our last trip to France as we laid over on the way to Morocco. His jeans, black with the perfect matching acid-wash, were a staple of his wardrobe and I hadn’t fingers and toes enough to count the number of times I’d removed them from his body. He’d capped off the look with black boots and a new pair of his preferred Fendi shades. How could anyone resist the invitation of death and rebirth when it dressed like a supermodel?

“There’s time for that.” Was his answer. 

Again yes, copious time. We embraced and he stroked my hair in a way as those times of old and so quite perfectly all part of this momentous night. I leaned into him heavily as the exhaustion overtook me. He pulled us back until we leaned against the car.

“My beloved,” He said so softy. “Restore yourself.”

He turned his head and the strength of his blood so close to my lips then. “He needs it,” was all I could manage to say. 

“He will have more than enough from me tonight and in the nights to come should he wish. You must be also be strong for him. Drink.”

I needed no further invitation and as I pulled that vital force into my body, my mind drifted from the night he’d brought me over to this moment. How could it all have passed so quickly? I could have been lost to those thoughts, but Lestat’s hands firmly on my shoulders brought me back, and I realized I’d needed that infusion even more than I’d known. 

“It’s never ceased to amaze me you know.” I said as I stepped back and took his hand. “The true magic of the blood can never be understood until you’re in it fully as Brian is about to learn.”

When he came with me onto the porch, his eyes searched the house as his mind felt the steady call of Brian’s heartbeat. He turned to me and his expression was as if a thought had occurred to him quite suddenly and rendered him curiously amused. 

“You haven’t brought him over just yet.” He affirmed. 

“No.” I said softly. “He’ll be glad you decided to be here tonight.” I paused and with reservation added, “Unless you’re simply passing through to check on things on your way out of the city.” 

He sat on the sturdy wooden railing that ran around the length of the porch and took both my hands in his own. “The thing Perry said when we told her about this, you know, it’s been running through my mind.” 

“She didn’t mean to perturb either of us with that comment.” I felt he knew it already but given his nature, her jest that we were having a baby together may have been a point of irritation. 

“No, but there’s some truth to it, don’t you agree?” He thumbed a strand of my hair and then tucked it behind my ear. “Drain him to the point of death. You remember what it was like, don’t you? Mm, so now it is your blood bringing him over, my blood strengthening him, more of your blood…” He leaned in and slowly breathed behind my ear, provoking a shudder. “More of my blood… that sounds something like coordinated copulation, wouldn’t you say? 

“You could put it that way…” I was lost to the distraction of him. Hadn’t I always been? 

“And I thought to myself that if there’s a larger truth there Louis, then when Brian looks upon the world with his new vision, the first thing he should see are the two people who love him most.”

He pulled me against him but I leaned back to clearly see his face while I shook my head. “You never stop surprising me, my love.”

“That I will always be, Louis my own and I promise to keep you guessing. Now… I brought you something.” He went to the car and retrieved an overnight bag. “I know Brian won’t necessarily be looking at your clothing but darling, we want to give him something to remember.” 

“Come on Lestat, it’s not prom night.” I said with slight annoyance, but I had to laugh. “Leave it to you to think of what I’d be wearing tonight” I pulled at the open front of his beautiful shirt. “As if I could compete.” 


	25. The Dark Gift - Part One

#  The Dark Gift Part One

Written by Gairid

**(Louis)**

I stood in the park, hidden in the shadows of the live oaks that surrounded  Maison de chêne . It had been a while since I’d been with Brian in this house, the place I had come to think of as our house. Perched on the edge of Audubon Pt the place for a good price some years ago and set himself the task of refurbishing and updating it. I’d dwelt there with him when Lestat was sorting himself out in Italy when we’d decided to take some time apart from each other in an effort to salvage the torn remnants of our relationship.

If you know the circumstances, it sounds impossible, but as it turned out, the damage was not beyond repair, and it was Brian who worked alongside us tirelessly to help mend the rift. This house was now the scene of another crossroad, one that I had never foreseen for us, much less myself. It was Lestat who foresaw this particular change and facilitated the first steps toward it.

Brian was in the house now, waiting for me in the upstairs suite,a bundle of nervous energy. I saw his shape hover at the window, twitching the curtain to one side as he detected my presence out here in the shadows. I spoke to his mind, saying his name in the reverential tones he deserved to hear from me. He moved away from the window and momentarily the front door opened and a flood of light cascaded out the door and down the front stairs of the lovely little porch. Brian’s shadow darkened the doorway and I went to him.

I took him in my arms and kissed the warm fullness of his mouth. How often had I done so in our time together? It seemed in that instant as if it were the first time, for I knew it would be the last. Those pliant lips would feel that only if he were freshly and abundantly fed; their perfect symmetry would be oh so slightly changed by the inescapable tightening of his skin. So much of the life we’d known with one another would be changed forever by this dark transubstantiation. We held one another without words, each of us cognisant of the moment at hand. 

“Are you ready, my Brian?” I asked at last. His kiss lingered on my cheek as he stepped back and took my hands in his own. I could feel him trembling and as he turned to lead me toward the bedroom, I stopped and turned him toward me once more. Had he ever looked more beautiful to me? His hair, grown long now and and hanging loose, “piratey” he’d joked, but it fit him completely. When he brought his eyes up to my face, the devotion and love that burned there was nearly too much to bear. “My love,” I brushed back a lock of hair from his face. “If you are at all uncertain we must not do this. With all that is to come, most certainly I would understand and we can wait until another time - or forego this altogether.”

**(Brian)**

We climbed the staircase together and went into the Master suite. Louis turned the lights down low and gestured me onto the bed. I welcomed him beside me with trembling hands., Mesmerized by his beauty, I waited for him to tell me what to do, not wishing to presume anything. His hands on my body caused infinitesimal tremors in my muscles and a fearsome yearning for the feel of his body against mine, for his teeth at my throat. 

‘I don’t want to wait. I don’t need to wait. I know this is what I want, to be with you always, to continue to share your life. You and Lestat are my family in ways my family was not able to be for me. You know this. Seems like another of those confounded tests. “You must answer with what you want!”

**( Louis)**

“You are impatient for me now, my love?” I asked him. “And clearly obsessed with your idea of vampires and their tests.” I chuckled and then caught myself gasping at the enormity of what I was about to do. My lovely, mortal Brian would be changed forever. Everything would be different, just as Lestat said. Everything. I pulled him close and breathed in deeply, taking in a lungful of the scents that would no longer exist, imprinting all that he was onto my senses so as not to lose them.

He gasped when I sank my teeth; the luscious tide of his blood began to flow into my mouth. As I drank, I mentally reassured him that this was everything I wanted and his mind answered with affirmations that at last he was giving me what I needed from him, from everyone, that his blood was my nourishment; how he was pleased to fulfill my need. I took another deep pull from him and he moaned softly against my mouth, his hands tangled in my hair. 

I raised from his neck and settled him. “Tonight is the night of your rebirth, Brian, and you must strengthen yourself, not simply give to me.” I advised. He watched with fevered eyes as I spoke. “Each time tonight that you drink from me, you will feel it more and more as it will feel when,”

“When I am yours.” He completed the sentence. 

“When you are mine, yes.” I felt my eyes dampen. There were so many other sentences I could add, but none would completely capture what I was feeling so in lieu of words, I brought him up into my arms and cleanly slashed a line across my throat. He choked as my blood welled faster than he could drink, but soon found a slower rhythm. I felt myself rocking with him in my arms, again inhaling his scent as so many memories passed through my mind. We had known one another two decades now, so horribly short a time when measured by mortal standards. We had laughed and cried together, and while we had our disagreements, I can honestly say there had never come a time when we were angry with one another, a fact I cherished as part of the true trust and love we had nurtured to this point. 


	26. Mr. Mercurial - Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally longer, but parts of this writing were removed and added to the final chapter. You know how it goes.

#  Mr. Mercurial Part 2

Written by Leshan

**(Lestat)**

But the wonder of it all was that he not only could compete with me, but in all the ways that mattered, he exceeded anything that I’d ever been or would be; and after all these years he was still in denial of these truths. He took the bag from my hand with another little roll of his beautiful eyes. “Prom night.” He echoed as he led me into the house. 

“Brian might see it as that and more. Of course you’ve already taken his virginity in the backseat of daddy’s car.” I gestured to the driveway. “Don’t think I didn’t know about that night shortly after he showed up in New Orleans.” 

“He was hardly a…”

“Louis!” Brian called raggedly as we entered the foyer. So weak it was that we felt more than heard it. Immediately Louis was up the stairs to find Brian on the bathroom floor, one arm holding him upright against the side of the tub. His face was ashen and his lips cracked from dehydration. He looked quite perfectly, like an animated corpse, all too close to how I’d appeared when I crawled out of Bayou Sauvage a couple centuries before. 

“Brian, I’m here.” Louis sank down beside him. “He’s dying, Lestat. Go if you do not wish to be here in the moment.” 

“Lestat?” With concentrated effort Brian looked up to confirm my presence. 

I knelt down and comforted to the extent I could. “Ssh, you’re so close. When you wake I’ll be here. Close your eyes now.” 

He slumped onto the floor and I leaned across to kiss my own immortal child. “This is nothing like anything before or since.You’re everything you need to be for him.” 

Louis held my hand as we locked eyes. I didn’t know if what I’d said was appropriate or ‘right’, whatever that could possibly be in such a moment, but the look on his face told me he understood the meaning of my words. I let my hand slip free and gave him a nod before I backed out and closed the door. 


	27. The Dark Gift - Part Two

#  The Dark Gift Part 2

Written by Gairid 

I felt it then, the weakening of his strong heart, a mad flutter in his chest. His arms clung to my back and shoulders and he said my name in a needful, plaintive tone.

“Am I dying now? Louis?” His eyes were wide and bright.

To my surprise, he let out a slow but genuinely amused laugh. “Those days when I was running around Boston, I never could have imagined,” His voice cracked. “Never thought my death would happen this way. That I’d love a vampire and he’d give me …” 

He was fading and though my own heart was breaking, I quieted him. “I’m here, my love. Don’t be afraid. You are mine and I have you now; You are safe, my darling boy. The worst is nearly over , Brian.” I said reassuringly. He grunted at me and lifted himself with his arms with a groan before lying down with an air of finality.

His heart beat it’s last mortal tempo and I felt a sob of pain escape me. He opened his eyes and looked at me. “No panic, my love. My heart is mourning your mortality, slipping away from us both.” He nodded wearily, and his eyes closed: I felt the heaviness of his limbs...the often mentioned dead weight and felt my own moment of panic as I watched him closely. The effects of my blood in his body miraculously took hold and I felt the new strength of his heart, picking up a beat that matched mine. “”Oh Brian, my love.” I said, gathering him close. “Here you are, back with me.” I said and I felt the tremble in my voice. I kissed his face, tasting the remnants of his last human tears in the corners of his eyes, bright now with a new luster. Already, there was a difference in the feel of the skin of his face.; a difference of texture. Though it was not yet too noticeable. Young ones keep their human-like pliance for quite some time, though the paleness and the inhuman chill is what is most noticeable in the beginning. That reminded me...I would turn the AC off for the night and make certain Brian had blankets if he needed them. It was the sort of thing that he would take care of, but I was fairly certain it had not occurred to him in reference to himself.


	28. The Changeling

# The Changeling 

Written by Leshan

**(Lestat)**

The Louisiana Night had set in and cast a net of low rolling fog across the blanket of grass. I half expected ghosts to rise up and address me, to call me out and tell me I had absolutely no right to be here as Louis brought the one he loved into this life, but I was alone and perhaps they knew that in the end, that was worse. I hadn’t seen nor danced with the spirit of Nicolas since the night when Louis and I were in Paris, the night I’d seen the old woman who lived in his flat along the Seine. I wondered if she were still alive and thought that no, surely her time had come and gone. She was out there now, in the star-pocked blackness, forever ephemeral and ageless. Mortal death was immortality, and vice-versa, non? It had been longer still since I saw the ghost of our beloved daughter and for that I was relieved. Mortals like to joke with one another about coming back to haunt each other, but they haven’t seen or felt anything like a vampire child taunting you from the corners. “Rest well, my long lost loves.” I said aloud and blew a kiss to the darkness. 

From behind came a cry of deep pain that ended in a howl of release. If I were on the lookout for spirits, I could imagine that in that moment, Brian’s mortal essence came past me to play a while longer in the earthen realm, dancing in the fog with those who came to greet him. That was a bittersweet notion for in that unique realm there was perhaps mortal Lestat, Louis, and all those who’d died and still lived. 

For a surreal minute in my fertile imagination they all paused to look toward me and I felt my heart answer that despite the promise of forever, some night body and soul would sync once more in a place that must surely exist. Old notions, Lestat. I said aloud as I rose and started back into the house. Just once more over my shoulder I looked back over the misty landscape and shook my head as I recalled a line fittingly from Romeo and Juliet. “When he shall die, take him and cut him out in little stars and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun.” Dance on, my loves. 

No sound drifted down to me from the bathroom but in that silence I heard Brian’s heart, unmistakably changed, slowly beating like any of the many adagio movements I’d schooled him in over the years. I walked up the stairs hesitantly. Regardless of the relationship between Louis and I, this was a situation where he would have every instinctive guard at the forefront. I had no desire to intrude and experience that sort of sightless anger. I heard water running in the bathroom and ventured a glance around the doorway. Louis there alone wiping up the floor with a towel before he turned and saw me. 

“It is done. He’s sleeping soundly.” I coaxed him to sit on the bench at my side. “I can’t recall it being so exhausting a process.” 

At first I thought he meant his own creation but realized he referred instead to those who had come before Brian in receiving his blood. “No comparison there my love. You had no mental investment. Ingress and egress with you and Brian is love energy.” I kissed his cheek and he turned and bit at my lower lip and let that deepen to a restorative flow, down to my throat until he paused with a soft whimper of relief. “Let’s get you cleaned up now, what do you say?” 

I urged him to sit while I got a fresh cloth and removed the last traces of their mingled blood from his face. Louis of course is always beautiful, but for what he had done this night, I found that I saw that now as well, that he was even more than the man I loved, and for that, I loved him more. It didn’t have to make sense to anyone but me. 

“Did you have a moment just after you turned me when you asked yourself if you’d made a horrible mistake?”

I paused with a short laugh. “Darling, I wasn’t into second guessing myself back then but that thought came with others, yes. If anything about this whole process can be called natural, I’d say that immediate doubt would qualify.” I put one hand on his knee as I stood. “What would your nights be like if you’d made the other choice and put an end to his life?”

“I cannot think of it.” He held his hand out to rebuke anything more along that line.

I rinsed the cloth and then noticed a swath of caked blood in his hair which I set to gently removing. 

“I love you.” He said softly.

“I know.” I helped him out of his shirt and insisted he get out the pants as well. I gave him the overnight bag I’d remembered to bring up with me. Prom night remember? We looked toward the bedroom. “His heart is quickening and soon he’ll rise for the first time to this life you’ve given him.” From the bag I handed him a satin shirt the hue of deep earth emeralds. He put it on and I drew his hair back in a matching ribbon from those he kept in the antique box in our home. As I’d envisioned, the depth of the color called forth a lighter glint in his eyes making them more dazzling than any adjective could convey. He ran his hand appreciatively over the fabric. “Sorry to disappoint with comparatively plain pants here, but I couldn’t decide.” He slipped on the tailored slacks and came to hold my face in his hands. 

“All of this… Thank you.”

“You’re my love and my life, Louis. I think you knew all along I’d be here when the moment came.” I challenged him with a look and one raised brow. 

He shrugged with a light laugh and a coy expression. “My speculations shall never be revealed.” 

I kissed him once more. “Let’s go and wait for your child to awaken.” 

He gently nudged my arm. “Our child.” he said firmly.


End file.
